Athlone amenity area “like a war zone” after Halloween

Piles of mattresses, beds, tyres and trolleys left an Athlone amenity area looking like “a war zone” after the Halloween weekend festivities according to one local councillor, who branded the actions of some residents on the west side of the town as “an absolute disgrace.”

Cllr Aengus O’Rourke raised the issue under Any Other Business after the November monthly meeting of Athlone Moate Municipal District and said he was “horrified” to witness young children dragging “suites of old furniture, old mattresses and household waste” from their homes to a public amenity area along a filled-in section of the Canal on the west side of the town on Sunday while their parents “acted as cheerleaders for their kids instead of acting like responsible adults.”

He said he was “inundated” by calls from people throughout the day on Sunday who were “outraged” at the behaviour of some local families in the area of the public amenity, and he commended the outdoor staff of Westmeath County Council who spent the past six weeks collecting pallets and other items that were being hoarded for use in bonfires on Halloween night.

“This public amenity area was left looking like a war zone with old furniture, mattresses, beds, tyres and trolleys” said Cllr O’Rourke who issued a strong plea to anyone who has any information about the perpetrators to “go to An Garda Siochána” and report the matter as it is against the law to dump in public areas.

He also added that if any of the perpetrators were council tenants “I hope we throw the book at them.”

Speaking about the need for everyone to play their part in keeping Athlone tidy, Cllr O’Rourke said the type of behaviour he witnessed from some parents on the west side of Athlone, and their children, over the Halloween weekend “can’t be tolerated in any civil society, and what I saw on Sunday night was anything but civil.”

Cllr John Dolan said the practice of dragging old furniture and other types of rubbish onto a public area to be burned in a bonfire is a way for “some people to get rid of their rubbish rather than having to pay refuse charges” and he said the people who engage in such activity “should be held accountable.”