Tralee Tidy Towns Tackles The Square With Local Businesses

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Tralee Tidy Towns members with businesspeople from The Square taking part in the weekly street clean-up on Thursday. Photo by Gavin O’Connor

TRALEE Tidy Towns continued their clean up of the town’s streets yesterday morning with the help of local businesses.  This week it was the turn of The Square.

In all, eleven businesses took part, which has followed on from the general good reaction from businesses around the town so far.

Out getting involved in the clean up was Mike McCarthy of Mike McCarthy Hair Studio whose family have operated in The Square since 1962.

“I think it’s a brilliant idea, but a little more has to be done, chiefly the attendance of a litter warden more often in the Square,” he said.

Mike also said that more should be done to curb anti-social behaviour in the Square. It’s a problem he feels is giving a bad image to tourists.

“We sometimes have problems with anti-social behavior and I’ve had to ring the guards on a number of occasions to move on people that are causing a nuisance,” Mike said.

“There’s plenty of laws, but no enforcement. I often see elderly people walking through the Square looking over their shoulders in case they get hit by a ball or something and that’s not on,”  Mike said.

“Kerry County Council needs to sit up and listen to local businesses because no one wants to see a deterioration of the town centre,” Mike said.

Irincha Penacoba is originally from Spain and works in the Oxfam shop in Abbey Court. She has lived in Tralee for two years and also took part in the clean up. She feels more people should get involved.

“I think the Tidy Towns are doing great work, but I feel the community as a whole is not very helpful,” Irincha said.

“The Square does not look very nice sometimes, but I think the area around Milk Market Lane is very beautiful. I think maybe the council should utilise that more,” she said.