This article is from page 28 of the 2007-04-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 28 JPG
FURIOUS business people in east Clare have slated the lack of fa- cilities for boaters and visitors to Mountshannon Harbour.
As the first Bank Holiday weekend of the season was blessed with sun- Shine last week, visitors flocked to the lake-shore village in boats and or NaS
But members of the East Clare Tourism Group were “appalled” to discover that all the bins intended for boat users have been removed and piles of smelly, unsightly rubbish were left piled up beside the recy- oA Tb aheam ey bake
The group says that the special pump-out stations, used by hire-boat tourists and boat-owners, haven’t worked in years.
‘This was the first busy week this year and there were hundreds of peo- ple in Mountshannon,” said Theresa Browne of the tourism group.
“It’s a disgrace that there were no disposal facilities for people. And the pump-out stations still aren’t working so people are going out into the lake and emptying the septic tanks from their boats. The harbour has mooring for 150 boats, which 1s a major asset to Mountshannon. It’s beyond belief that the county council can’t provide such basic facilities,”
said Theresa.
As the tourism group met last week in the wake of the sunny Bank Holi- day weekend, they learned that “the situation was no better at Two Mile Gate. There are no litter bins there either’, said Theresa.
“Lough Derg is the jewel in the crown of natural assets in this part of Clare. If we can’t provide the most basic of facilities for people, they won’t come here,” she said.
Local councillor, Colm Wiley, who is a member of the Tourism Board, said that he has met with officials of the local authority to discuss the matter.
“They are going out to inspect the
facilities and see what can be done,” said Cllr Wiley.
The local councillor said he spoke to the councils’ Director of Services, Ger Dollard, about the problems with the pump-out facilities.
“The engineers say they are work- ing. The system is that people on boats have to buy cards for the pumps from local shops, It does seem that this system is not work- ing successfully and it will have to be looked at again,” the Clare county councillor said.