Visiting doctor starts holiday cleaning beach

Visiting doctor starts holiday cleaning beach

16 August 2017

A FIRST time visitor to Killough spent the early part of his holiday collecting waste strewn across the village’s picturesque beach.

Dr Peter McParlin from Leeds was hoping when he raised the issue with Newry, Mourne and Down Council that it would deploy staff to remove broken glass, empty beer cans and plastic bottles which he said posed a danger to his disabled son and the family dogs.

The visitor made a tongue in cheek request to the local authority on Monday to be provided with equipment to remove the waste and was hoping he would have been told it was a job for the council.

However, he was informed by a member of staff that equipment would be left and it duly arrived yesterday morning but when he went to the beach the pile of waste he had assembled and intended to remove was gone.

Dr McParlin said the items included beer bottles and beer cans, some of which still had liquid in them, broken shards of glass capable of rendering a deep cut, a cigarette lighter, plastic cord, sharp bottle tops and what he described as “plastic galore,” all of which posed a danger to his son.

He said while Killough is “everything it promised to be, located in a beautiful and gorgeous area,” it is a pity the waste on the beach is letting the area down. He said when he looked at the beach he saw the range of litter and “feared for the safety” of his son if he was playing on it.

“I just thought there was any amount of junk he could get caught up in and I would not want my dogs to go near that kind of stuff either,” explained Dr McParlin. “I had hoped by raising this issue with the local council and saying tongue in cheek can I borrow some equipment to clean up all this litter it would say don’t be silly, we will send one of our teams down to clean the beach. A member of staff then told me she would off everything I needed on Tuesday to clean the beach.”

Dr McParlin said he believes others would share his view that a littered beach is not a safe area for children, suggesting tin cans with sharp edges are “pretty toxic” in an environment where kids are playing.

“You would not feel safe about your kids going down there,” he continued. “Before coming here we did a Google search and Killough is everything it promised to be. It is a beautiful part of the coastline and looks gorgeous, but it just seems to us if you have something so special and so beautiful, why not take the trash off the beach?

“I thought the council’s reply to my request might have been we will get someone over to clean it up but when I asked for equipment to clean it they said it would be delivered the following morning.”

Dr McParlin explained he did not want to shame the local authority with a “blunt, brisk message” about the litter on the beach and instead asked for the equipment to remove it.

“I wanted to give the council some leeway and come back and say they were sorry to hear about the problems I was having as a holidaymaker and they would of course send someone out to remove it. I wanted to give the council the opportunity of cleaning it up.”

He added: “This area is absolutely beautiful and gorgeous, why let it down on a stupid point?”

A spokesman for Newry, Mourne and Down Council confirmed it received a recent enquiry concerning cleanliness for a section of coastline at Killough and said the enquiry was processed as a request to assist with an environmental clean-up.

He added: “Assistance was provided as part of the Council’s ‘Down Your Street Initiative’ which has supported a number of community clean-ups this year to date. The Council will now contact the enquiry originator to rectify and progress the concerns raised appropriately.”