Poster row in Westport campaign

Poster row in Westport Town Council campaign


An election row has erupted in Westport over the placing of posters within the urban area.
More than 20 years ago all political parties and other candidates in the town council elections agreed to a request from the local Tidy Towns Committee that no election posters would be erected inside the urban boundary.
That agreement has been honoured in all subsequent elections and since then Westport has won the overall national tidy towns title on three occasions.
When the election campaign proper commenced a few weeks ago a number of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour posters were erected on the West Road within the urban boundary.
They were removed by Westport Town Council in accordance with the standing agreement and this was accepted by the two main parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
The Labour party refused to acknowledge the agreement and replaced the posters on the West Road. They were again removed by the Council and again put back up.
Spokespersons for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael said they had no problem with the removal of the posters on the West Road which had been inadvertently erected inside the urban area.
The Labour party candidates featured on the West Road posters are Town Councillor, Keith Martin and David Fallon. Further out the road, but still within the urban area are posters of Euro candidate, Marian Harkin.
Cllr Keith Martin, who is also featured with David Fallon on a billboard poster on Castlebar Street in the town, was unavailable for comment yesterday (Monday) evening.