Litter lout attempts to sabotage tidy town image

GARDAI´ are on the trail of a litter bug who is trying to sabotage the efforts of a tidy town competition.

The litter lout is described as a mainly nocturnal creature. During the day he spends his time painstakingly cutting up newspapers into strips.

Under cover of darkness, and armed with sackfuls of rubbish, he wreaks havoc on the tidy town's effort, dumping in areas which have recently been cleaned up by local environmentalists.

So much paper is being discarded a county councillor PJ Walsh, who came across the litter, said it was like he'd carpeted the town.

People living in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, are at a loss to fathom the reasons behind the litter bug's late-night manoeuvres.

Some believe the culprit may have a grudge against the local tidy towns committee. Whatever the reason the litter lout has been going to immense lengths to keep everyone down in the dump the stuff.

"It's soul-destroying for us," said Paddy Kiely yesterday. "We were once dubbed one of the dirtiest towns in Ireland but now we have groups which are taking a pride in the town and we have been performing very well in the Cork Co Council's litter league, winning second and third spots in the last two years," Mr Kiely said.

Mr Kiely, who wants his town to come up smelling of roses, formed an organisation called AROMA (Amalgamation of Residents of Mitchelstown Association) which oversees clean-ups.

"The littering has been going on for a least a month. Whoever is doing it is cutting strips of paper with a scissors. It's awful to see it blowing in the wind and it happens after we do clean-ups," Mr Kiely said.

Paudi Fitzgibbon, chairman of the local business association, said he couldn't understand why anybody would go to such lengths to destroy the town.

A garda spokesman said they were treating the incidents very seriously.