By Andy Spearman
Nobody can deny that Drogheda is down at heel and badly in need of a lift. The place is filthy and it has been for years.
The last time this town received any real TLC was in the run up to the Fleadh and even then there was much papering over the cracks needed to get the place looking it best for the hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Right thinking Drogheda people cannot help but feel disgusted by the sorry and disgusting state to which our beloved town has sunk in recent years.
The once proud and immaculately clean streets are now blackened by the ingrained dirt that is everywhere.
Weeds grow in the cracks of our pavements and gutters and many of our commercial and public buildings are in a state of disrepair, some to the point of dereliction. Even the road markings are faded and tatty looking.
From Narrow West Street right across town to the wonderful Laurence’s Gate and out in every direction there is mess and filth everywhere.
The steps and historic back lanes that are such a feature of this historic town on the banks of the beautiful river Boyne are for the most part neglected and are used by uncaring idiots as dumping grounds for their household waste and often their bodily waste also.
None of this is news of course, God knows Drogheda Life and the other local media outlets have highlighted the situation enough times, but the message doesn’t seem to be sinking in.
The time is long overdue for us all to accept responsibility for the situation and find ways to make the necessary changes. The people responsible for dirtying our surroundings need to develop some self-respect or, more importantly, respect for others.
It was great to see earlier this week that the Drogheda Tidy Towns Committee and volunteers have embarked on a five year plan to literally clean up our act.
But they can’t do it on their own.Getting Drogheda back to being a place we can all be proud to call home will take a concerted effort from many quarters.
The Council will have to get their act together to improve the street cleaning service in the town and also, along with the Gardaí, step up their campaign to detect illegal dumpers and issue fines.
The law needs to be changed to allow the Council to use hidden CCTV cameras to catch the filthy low lives that are dumping everywhere.
The owners of vacant properties must be made to maintain them to prevent them from becoming derelict eyesores. “Use it or lose it” should be the mantra.
Owners of business premises must also take responsibility for their properties so many of which are in an appalling condition.
Residents in our housing estates and streets have a vital role to play also. If everyone swept the pavement in front of their home once a week it would have a huge and immediate effect.
The five-year plan that the Tidy Towns Committee have embarked on may sound ambitious but nothing was ever achieved with ambition so more power to them.
Certainly the council could approach their work with more imagination and ambition but if we want to make Drogheda a place of which we can be proud once again we the public need to take matters into our own hands and not be afraid to get those hands dirty.
