Candidates accused of flouting poster ban spirit

Fianna Fáil candidate Shane Fallon’s election trailer parked on Ballincollig’s main street inside the town’s poster-free zoned.

Two local election candidates have been accused of flouting the spirit of a town’s poster ban.

The two Fianna Fáil candidates, Shane Fallon and Colm Kelleher, who are both running in the Cork south-west ward for election to Cork City Council, are under fire over their efforts to woo voters in Ballincollig.

The town’s award-winning Tidy Towns committee had asked candidates in April to respect their designated poster-free zone covering the core town centre.

They had specifically asked that ‘no posters of any sort’ be put up inside this zone and said most candidates had agreed to respect their request.

But on Saturday afternoon, a trailer bearing a large near six-foot high sign urging people to ‘Vote No 1’ for Mr Fallon was parked across two parking spaces on Ballincollig’s main street.

Parking in the zone is free but is limited to one-hour, Mondays to Saturdays. The trailer was parked there for several hours and was still on the street yesterday.

Mr Kelleher has also taken out ad space on a bus shelter in the town centre.

In a post on Facebook yesterday, the Tidy Towns committee flagged its annoyance at the approach but it didn’t identify the candidates.

It accused them of ‘being cute’ in their approach to the poster ban.

The post attracted several comments with people accusing the Tidy Towns committee of getting political, given that one of its long-serving members, Garrett Kelleher, is running as a Fine Gael candidate. Mr Kelleher has been a member of the group’s 16-strong committee for several years. The Tidy Towns deleted the post later.

Tidy Towns chairman, Tom Butler, has insisted that the organisation is completely apolitical and that the comments the post attracted were “unjust, unwarranted, and unfair”.

“I would like to invite those people who are quick to criticise this organisation to roll up their sleeves, and come out and volunteer with us. We are out every Tuesday and Thursday night and on Sunday mornings,” he said.

Mr Fallon said he completely respects the Tidy Towns committee and the work it does, but he didn’t think the trailer would be an issue. He arranged for the trailer to be removed last night.