'Westport is a poster-free town' : Mayo's tidy towns slam election poster ‘waste’

As the presidential election beckons, Mayo woman Eithne Larkin took to the airwaves to raise awareness regarding Mayo towns’ poster-free policies.

Ms Larkin spoke on behalf of Castlebar, Westport, Claremorris, Aghagower, Ballindine and Mulranny tidy towns on Mid-West Radio. 

The community volunteer said: “We are asking candidates not to put posters in the 50km zone.”

“I think it’s time for Mayo county Council to step up”, Larkin asserted. “Westport is a poster-free town.”

“There are hundreds of tidy town groups requesting no posters.”

She continued: “I contacted all the directors of elections … and named our towns”. 

The tidy towns member said: “There’s digital noticeboards now, there’s so many resources”, as her reasoning behind why physical election posters are no longer necessary.

Eithne Larkin also expressed concern about the environmental impact of election poster waste and plastic, stating: “We are in a climate crisis.”

In this context, she considers the huge number of election posters to be inappropriate.

Larkin also finds the posters themselves unnecessary: “I really don’t think a smiling face on a poster would influence people to vote.”

She asked the question: “Are you going to vote for a candidate just because of how they look?”, and made the point that there is no mention of policy on these posters. 

Several texters contacted Tommy Marren’s Mid-West radio show agreeing with Larkin. 

One got in touch to say: “Ballina is littered with posters”

A second texter complained: “One of the candidates has a poster on a go slow sign, and you can’t see the go slow anymore.”

Another texter wrote to the show to say that the Breaffy Road near Castlebar has several posters in a row of the same candidate.

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