Fire service comes to the aid of Bantry Tidy Towns

BANTRY Tidy Towns have a secret weapon – their good friends in the fire service have, once again, come to their aid and cleaned the Mill River at the Library.

‘The Mill by the library is a wonderful focal point for the town,’ Winnie O’Sullivan, the PRO of the local tidy towns group, told The Southern Star, ‘but it can be really difficult to clean.

‘The water cascades over a 20ft drop that would be beyond the reach of our members, but it’s no trouble at all to our local fire fighters who clean it twice a year.’

The most recent clean-up yielded four large bags of rubbish, but the crew also surfaced with a lifebuoy and a shopping trolley.

‘One wonders how the trolley got in there,’ said Winnie, who pointed out that not all of the rubbish is thrown in over the wall – much of it comes downstream from the Mill River.

During lockdown, a lot of towns throughout West Cork have reported an increase in illegal dumping, but Winnie believes that the people of Bantry have been very civic-minded.

Last year, Bantry won a silver medal in the Tidy Towns competition for the sixth consecutive year, as well as taking the accolade of ‘Best-Kept Town in Ireland’ so pride in the appearance of the town is at an all-time high.

‘We are fortunate, here in Bantry, that people – like the members of our local fire brigade – continue to lend their support to the ongoing tidy towns effort.

‘We also get tremendous support from the Business Association, Bantry Development and Tourism, the Chamber of Commerce, Cork County Council, and the local community – everyone does their bit for the good of the town.’