Residents involved in Sarsfield Square greenway entrance clean-up
A €6,000 anti-littering initiative in the Sarsfield Square area of Athlone was hailed as a success at a meeting of Westmeath County Council's environment policy committee last month.
The project, which had been proposed by the Sarsfield Square Residents' Association, saw the clean-up of a littering blackspot next to the greenway entrance adjacent to the estate.
It was one of five anti-littering initiatives undertaken on behalf of the council in Westmeath in 2022, according to local authority official John Jackson.
"This was a lovely project in a very busy area," said Mr Jackson, in reference to the Sarsfield Square clean-up which cost a total of €6,330.
"It's a busy little walkway, between the Athlone Sports Centre and the Marist College, at Sarsfield Square, and it was very overgrown and attracted a lot of dumping and littering. People were just walking by and throwing stuff in.
"We decided to remove all of the bramble and all of the brush. The clean-up has made a major difference there. The Sarsfield Square residents are delighted with the project, and they're going to take it on board now and try and manage it from here on in."
Mr Jackson said the local residents would be planting a "biodiversity garden" in the cleaned-up area this Spring. "That will finish off the area, make it more pollinator-friendly, and hopefully eliminate the rubbish in the area," he stated.
The clean-up work was undertaken by the Athlone Moate Municipal District with the support and involvement of the local residents' association.
Another anti-littering initiative undertaken in the north of the county in 2022 saw the Mullingar Municipal District spend almost €13,000 on removing "over 60,000 tonnes" of waste during a clean-up of the Milltown Pass bog road.
In addition, Mr Jackson said, the council's environment section spent €18,327 on anti-littering work at the All Ireland Fleadh in Mullingar last summer. Other anti-littering initiatives involved the hiring of seasonal litter wardens (which cost €13,161) and bulky waste collections (€11,161).