'It’s great to see the old mart yard so spotless': Clean up of littered area in Fermoy welcomed following criticism

Members of Fermoy’s Tidy Towns committee have welcomed a “miraculous” clean-up of the old Mart Car Park in the wake of stinging criticism of the site in the recent Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) Litter League report.
the old mart site.
“Since Fermoy won the IBAL cleanest town in Ireland award in 2018, the old mart site has been an absolute eyesore, and it’s dragged us down every time,” Mr Kavanagh said.
“It’s great to see the old mart yard so spotless now, after all of our repeatedly appealing to Cork County Council to get its act together, and it’s a miraculous turnaround, which we welcome.
“It would have been great if Cork County Council could have got on top of the situation before the mart yard once again kept us out of the top five towns in the country, but better late than never,” he said.
In welcoming these improvements, Mr Kavanagh called for cameras to be installed near the town’s bring centre to discourage dumping.
He noted that Fermoy has been granted €1.9 million under the Government’s Rural Regeneration Development Fund, and welcomed plans to rejuvenate the town centre by addressing the issue of vacant and derelict buildings in the town.
Mr Kavanagh suggested that the council should use IBAL’s reports as a template for maintenance and infrastructure upgrading, and called for the return of the town’s on-street litter bins, removed 18 months ago.
He thanked the Tidy Towns volunteers and the people of the town for their cooperation and asked for their ongoing support to help Fermoy, representing Cork County, to win the coveted title of Ireland’s cleanest town in 2022.
Fine Gael Councillor Noel McCarthy, who is chairman of Fermoy Tidy Towns, commended Cork County Council on its work in cleaning up the site, saying the council workers had done “fantastic” work, and said everyone in the town needed to work together to reclaim the title of Ireland’s cleanest town.
Mr McCarthy thanked the Avondhu Blackwater Partnership and the Tús workers for all of their contributions.
Council s
A spokesperson for Cork County Council noted that its lease with the owner of the old mart site does not extend to the site’s derelict buildings, which, they said, are in private ownership.
However, they said, a schedule of works has been agreed with the property owner, with works agreed to be carried out in the coming weeks by the owner.
“Otherwise Council maintenance extends to litter picking and daily servicing of the bring banks, which are prone to daily abuse,” the council spokesperson said.