Carrigaline vandals repeatedly destroy parklet flowers
Carrigaline Tidy Towns have expressed their upset that mindless vandals have repeatedly ripped out and thrown around flowers planted in a parklet within the town.
In recent weeks, the committee have tried to salvage plants that were uprooted along with their seating, which was broken and badly damaged.
A representative of the Carrigaline Towns Committee spoke of their frustration regarding the acts of vandalism.
“We have a little parklet and it’s a gem in the town, it’s off the main street and we have a cabin where our headquarters is, we keep it very well,” they told the Cork Independent. “By daytime we enjoy it, people will sit and have their coffees, we have artificial grass and seating and it’s full of flowers.”
However, at nighttime it becomes a no-go area, she explained. “You could have 20 or 30 young lads jumping on the seats and wrecking the place. If you ask them to pick up their rubbish they’ll say 'It’s not mine, and I won’t do it'. They’ve no respect for anybody, not even for the guards.”
The spokesperson said that although the vandalism is a regular occurrence, recent damage was particularly bad. “Last Thursday week was the worst we have seen for a while, every plant we had was pulled out, they made footballs of them, kicked them around the place and broke them. We are so particular about the town looking good because we have a gold medal and we don’t want to lose it, and this is what you are faced with.”
“This isn’t the first time the plants have been ripped out,” she said. “But I was more upset this time because we had spent a lot of time getting it together. Probably every two weeks we find something vandalised.
“Our seats were broken about 6 weeks ago. They mightn’t do anything again for a month or they could wreck the place tomorrow night. Anything can happen.”
According to the spokesperson, the damage gets worse during the summer and occurs at night when young gangs congregate. She said that the Tidy Towns committee have spoken to the gardaí about the anti-social behaviour but unfortunately, because of their young age, nothing can be done.
The spokesperson said she believes that installing surveillance cameras in the area would be the solution to the problem, which they have requested from the county council. On a more positive note, Dairygold Co-Op in Carrigaline has offered to donate replacement plants to the parklet.
Fine Gael Councillor Jack White expressed his frustration at the latest act of vandalism. “We hugely value the Carrigaline Tidy Towns and everything they do, to see their work undone on such a frequent basis is very disappointing,” he said.
Asked whether he thought there was a problem with disruptive gangs in the town he had this to say: “Unfortunately anywhere that’s the size of Carrigaline there can be anti-social behaviour and will have problems from time to time. But the town centre is still relatively quiet.”
However he did say that he hopes that surveillance cameras will be put in place at a future date. “Something that we are looking for from the council on an ongoing basis is the installation of CCTVs at the parklet.
“But there’s a question whether the ownership of the data captured by the CCTV would be the county council's or the gardaí. There is legislation working its way through the Dáil at present, and work is being done but they haven’t been to establish an agreement on that yet,” he said.