Councillor calls for Westport’s Fairgreen to be lit up for Paddington Bear

A local county councillor has called for Paddington Bear’s perch on Westport’s Fairgreen to be lit up. 

Cllr Peter Flynn suggested that a Westport Tidy Towns monument located in front of the statue should be lit up to maximise Paddington’s visibility during the winter months. 

“I’ve never seen it lit up. Apparently, someone unplugged it and it hasn’t gone back in again,” Cllr Flynn said at the Westport-Belmullet Municipal District budget meeting. 

“Really something should be done, because people will come from far and wide, particularly with the film,” he added, referring to the recently-released ‘Paddingont in Peru’.

The Westport Paddington statue is one of 23 scattered around Ireland and the United Kingdom to promote the third in a series of live-action films starring Paddington Bear. 

Thousands of people have visited the statue since it was officially opened at The Fairgreen last month. Repair works were recently carried out on the surrounding attraction due to the damage incurred from the number of visitors it has drawn. It has also been confirmed that it will remain there ‘for the foreseeable future’. 

Joanne Grehan, Mayo County Council’s Director of Services for Tourism, said before the start of the Westport-Belmullet Municipal District budget meeting that you ‘could not buy the publicity’ that Paddington has generated for the West Mayo town.