Carrigaline is the latest Cork town to issue a ban on election posters

As local and European elections loom, Carrigaline's Community Association have passed a motion to ban posters, joining a growing list of towns who have made the decision to stop posters being used in their areas.

Towns and villages that have already placed a ban on posters include Blarney, Cobh, Ballincollig and Passage West.

They argue that the posters are often left attached to poles and lampposts long after elections and events take place. They also say they can cause an obstruction on footpaths and block views.

The motion was put forward by the chairman of Carrigaline Tidy Towns Liam O'Connor, who has been an advocate of bringing in a ban on posters for a number of years. 

He told The Echo: "Last year I think I collected around 200 old ties from old posters, especially on Main Street and they were a result of old posters falling down. Visually it doesn't look great."

"Then the impact it has on the environment, with these plastic corriboards where most of them just go to landfill, which isn't great as only a few of them can be recycled. There's no need for them."

O'Connor, who is running for election for Fine Gael in the new Carrigaline Municipal District, believes alternative methods could be used, such as a designated area for posters: "I'd be in favour of having a designated area in each town, where somebody could put up a poster, where they could pick a corner and say if there were ten candidates, there can be ten posters and standard poles and posts could be put up."

While it's not legally enforced, communities that have a ban in place hope that political candidates, sports clubs and local businesses will adhere to the ban and find another way to promote their campaigns or events.

A campaign called Poster Free was started by Donegal councillor Séamus Maguire and ZeroWaste.ie to make the ban nationwide. So far over 90 towns and villages have signed up to the Poster Free Campaign.