FERMOY DROPS 25 PLACES IN LITTER LEAGUE

Disappointment has been expressed this week with the news that Fermoy has dropped 25 places in the IBAL (Irish Businesses Against Litter) competition. The town can, however, boast to being ‘clean to European norms.

Many people were bitterly disappointed to find that Fermoy has dropped to the 27th place, among 60 towns and cities, as the results of the IBAL competition for 2009 were released early on Tuesday morning.

The town was deemed ‘moderately littered’ in seven areas: Mallow approach road, Cork approach road, Waterford approach road, library car park, Patrick Street, Sean O’Brien Park and Blackwater amenity walk.

DISMAY EXPRESSED

One Fermoy resident, who did not wish to be named, expressed her dismay at the drop and pointed out the “lack of leadership of the current tidy towns committee” and how much dirtier the town has become lately.

“It’s very disappointing. We have gone from the top 3 to 27. It’s a shame. It’s a long way back up,” she said questioning the leadership of the new committee and what actions they were going to take to improve the image of the town.

“I would question the committee as to what they are going to do. Will they continue to keep it up? Will they come out and pick up litter? We had a great relationship with the old committee and John Murphy would always be out picking up litter,” the woman claimed.

HANDS ON

As the new chairman of the tidy towns committee, Mayor Noel McCarthy was disappointed at the drop as well and commented, “We are anxious to get to the top of the league. We are going to get back. I will be hands on for this job and I am serious about it. We need more volunteers and I will be one of them. We now see the implications of the budget cuts. We need to come up with new ideas.

"Business people should take more responsibility outside their premises as well. I appreciate and praise the work that Cllr John Murphy did and I am looking forward to working with him and learning from his experience.”

TEAM EFFORT

Other councillors have also expressed their dissatisfaction with the current lack of tidiness in the town with Cllr Aileen Pyne reminiscing about the same time last year, when she was in Dublin for the awards ceremony, in which Fermoy came second.

“Hope we’ll be on top again this time next year. It is a team effort,” she said. Former town councillor and mayor, William Hughes stressed that he “would like to see a better effort made.”

He also wanted to compliment residents’ associations and the voluntary community workers for the great work they put in the past.

HIGH STANDARD

The former chairman of the Tidy Towns committee, Cllr John Murphy, highlighted the need for more “cooperation with the town executive and engineers to get a formula going. The goodwill and volunteers are there,” he told The Avondhu.

It’s not all bad though. Yes, the town slipped, but it is still clean to European norms and the top of the league is achievable given that Bray, the town that won this year’s award was last year listed as Ireland’s dirtiest town.

“Fermoy set a very high standard. It didn’t perform as well this year, but it is like keeping a house clean. There will be moments that it won’t be that clean. It is not a disaster. With a little determination Fermoy can get back to the top. Bray has seen a complete reversal. The council brought the change. They set up a litter task force a year ago and they involved the chamber of commerce. They decided to do a good job. I think Fermoy will make a big effort to do well in both Tidy Towns and the litter league.” Tom Cavanagh, chairman of IBAL, told The Avondhu.

GREATER ROLE

Speaking to The Avondhu about the results Cllr Pa O’Driscoll said, “Firstly there is a positive message from the results. While Fermoy may have slipped back on the rankings compared to last year, overall the town was seen as clean by the judges of the IBAL awards.

“The second message coming from the results was that to progress back up the rankings is very achievable. The winners of the award, Bray, went from being a littered town to the cleanest in a very short period of time. Talking to people around the town there is acknowledgment that the public will have to play a greater role in keeping Fermoy litter free.

“The Tidy Towns committee is working well, and I know that they have short and long terms plans to improve the overall image of Fermoy. The town can regain its litter free status, once everyone is willing to put in an effort and change some attitudes.”

BUSINESS DOWN BUT IT’S NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM

Fermoy suffered the chill winds of recession in 2009 as local businesses fought hard to survive the year. With major employers shutting their doors and jobs lost, Fermoy was dealt a hard blow and businesses suffered as a result. The future is uncertain and many are just feeling their way and taking it one day at a time.

However, there is still measured optimism as traders become more adaptable and plan for the future.

FESTIVE TRADE

The festive trade proved disappointing for many and the excessively cold weather and road conditions had a knock on effect local shops.

“The trade was disappointing due to the weather, the scarcity of money overall, the depth of the recession and, of course, the job losses. It was the worst experience in recent years. Businesses have to become much leaner and much sharper. However, in the depth of misery there is always light. Fermoy still has a lot going for it,” local businessman, Michael Hanley, told The Avondhu.

NOT AS GOOD

Business during the holiday season was down also at Noel McCarthy’s Carry Out off licence.

“It was not as good as last year. We were down 5%; but the week after Christmas was much better than we thought. It wasn’t a complete disaster. The weather was so bad that people shopped more locally and that was a big help to us. In 2010 we just hope to be able to stay at last year’s levels. It will be very hard to rise above that but we cannot afford to drop any more, or we will be in financial difficulty,” Mr McCarthy said.

He also highlighted the importance of people shopping locally as this would keep the jobs in town.

GOOD END

2009 was a ‘nightmare’ for The Grand Hotel manager, Joe Kearney, too, but, “December brought a good end to what was a very tough year. The end of the year was very positive. We had no real expectations and we were pleasantly surprised. Everything was much more low key, but things still happened. The advance bookings are gone and no one is planning ahead. The day-to-day trading has remained strong though. We’ll just take it one week at a time. That’s all we can do.”

Optimism, though understated, is still prevalent in the Fermoy business community. With more and more businesses having to think outside the box, things may not turn out to be as bad as expected in 2010.

FLYING SAUCERS IN MITCHELSTOWN? - ‘THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE’

Is there anyone out there? Visitors to Ireland normally head for the usual tourist attractions like Blarney Castle or the lakes of Killarney but it appears that Mitchelstown could be getting ‘visitors’ of a totally different kind.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and, with this in mind, Pat Fanning grabbed his camera when, on Saturday night, December 6, at midnight he saw two strange orange glowing lights in the sky above his house in Linden Hill.

“The two lights were about 500ft above the house, moving slowly toward the north west in the direction of Kilbehenny. The lights which, looked to be the same size, were moving together and about 50ft apart one above the other. I called my wife and got my camera and a friend of mine, Pat O’Connor, also saw the lights as they disappeared over the horizon,” he told The Avondhu.

Could the lights have been a low flying plane or helicopter? “They (the lights) were not moving very fast and I don’t think an aircraft would have lights like these, they seemed to glow and pulsate. I just took the photo and then forgot all about it until I noticed a few weeks later in another paper a photograph taken in Red Square in Moscow. This looked very like what I saw in Mitchelstown,” Pat said.

Unlike Moscow there are, it would seem, very few ex-communists in Mitchelstown and unlike Mitchelstown, Moscow is not known for its dairy industry so why all the UFOs? Could it be that the town is a ideal place to stop off en route to Dublin and has two hours free parking?

Is there anyone out there that can’t account for his or her movements on Saturday night, December 6? Do you have all your internal organs? Or do you feel the need to watch Close Encounters over and over again?

Whatever the reason, keep watching the sky - ‘The truth is out there’. If you have witnessed anything like this in the skies around The Avondhu area, we would love to hear about it!

BUSINESSES URGED TO APPLY FOR PRSI EXEMPTION AND CREATE JOBS

Businesses are being urged to apply for a new scheme that will promote local employment and also reduce their PRSI contributions, by West Limerick TD, Niall Collins.

The Employer Job Incentive Scheme is expected to help create more jobs in county Limerick and around the country. Under the scheme when an employer creates a new job and employs a person who has been on the live register for six months or more, they will then be exempt from the employers’ PRSI contributions for the first 12 months of that employment.

“Typically this will result in a saving of about €3,000 per annum in the cost of employment which is obviously a huge saving for any business,” said Deputy Collins.

“I hope that there will be a significant uptake by companies throughout Limerick as it will not only save them money but it will also help get more people off the dole and back into the workforce.”

“Many businesses have been afraid to take on new staff in the current economic climate but I hope this scheme will give them extra encouragement. It is particularly aimed at those who have been on the live register for six months or more as these are the people who generally find it most difficult to find new employment.”

“This is a strong, positive step by the Government to promote employment and I hope there will be significant uptake by companies and businesses throughout Limerick,” Deputy Collins concluded.

DID LOCAL AUTHORITIES DO ENOUGH?

Sub-zero temperatures and icy road conditions prevailed over most of the country this Christmas season but the question remains ‘Did the local authorities do enough to ensure that the roads remained open?’

With city and county councils reporting a shortage of grit and salt and with many of the secondary roads impassable, people in rural Ireland feel that enough was not done to combat the icy weather. In many rural areas the weather has made it nearly impossible to move about.

“Our road hasn’t thawed out for days, it’s a sheet of ice and there are two cars in the ditch further down the road. My mother is elderly and only for the fact that I was able to walk to the village to get food we would have been in a terrible condition,” Sean Murphy from Ballylanders told The Avondhu.

Most councils have reported a major shortage of salt, with Clare County Council using its entire supply, which would normally last the winter months, in 10 days over Christmas.

On Monday a ship carrying over 4,000 tonnes of grit and salt arrived at Cork port from Spain but the local authorities have confirmed that motorways and primary roads countrywide will be the priority.

Meanwhile, Met Eireann are forecasting more freezing temperatures for the rest of the week and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) are advising motorists to drive with extreme care.

“There have been many minor accidents on the roads due to the bad weather but overall motorists are slowing down,” a spokesperson for the RSA said.

“I would urge drivers to check local weather and traffic reports before setting out on a journey and when travelling please slow down and keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists should consider postponing their journey if road conditions are very poor and if you do use the roads make sure you are wearing a high visibility jacket to be seen,” Noel Brett CEO, RSA said.

“They get a lot lower temperatures on the continent and in America but they seem to be able to deal with it much better then we can here. I know that this type of weather was totally unexpected but I think the country should have been better prepared, if it was any worse I think it could have been very dangerous for elderly people living on their own,” Sean Murphy said.

MITCHELSTOWN SHOPS REPORT ‘BETTER THAN EXPECTED’ CHRISTMAS TRADE

Traders in Mitchelstown have reported that the Christmas season proved to be better than expected. Most main street businesses reported takings down on last year but were happy with the overall results.

“We had a good Christmas, business was not up to the level of last year but I am very happy with the results. I think the weather also played a major part in the numbers of people shopping in the town,” Sean Farrell of Farrell’s Centra told The Avondhu.

Other businesses also reported steady trade over the Christmas period, “Christmas week was busy and I am very pleased to see that people supported their local retailers,” Nora Quane of Stylelounge said.

While most traders agree that business was not as good as last year there was unanimous praise for the people who shopped in the town over the Christmas period.

“I think that the campaign to encourage people to shop locally and to support local jobs has paid off and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who supported the retailers and businesses of Mitchelstown,” Eamonn O’Brien chairman of Mitchelstown Business Association (MBA) told The Avondhu.

“We would hope that this loyalty will continue on in to 2010 and as the Mitchelstown loyalty card scheme heads into its second year there will be many more monthly prizes for all those who have completed their cards.

"I would also like to thank all the members of the MBA who have worked so hard to promote their town and for all those who helped make the Christmas Festival such a success once again. These events are carried out on a completely voluntary basis and a lot of hard work and long hours went into making the Christmas season in Mitchelstown such a success,” Eamonn O’Brien concluded.