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COMMUNITY FEATURE: Donneyloop Community Group donned their gloves and hi-visibility vests to give their local area a good spring clean on Saturday.
Brid McGrenra one of the key organisers of the event explained that 25 litter pickers aged from 9 to 70 came out to support the community in the Donegal County Council and An Taisce sponsored spring clean.
“We had our clean up on Saturday the 23rd April with 25 litter pickers aged from 9 – 70.
“We filled a skip to overflowing and it was sad to see so much litter along the countryside roads with full bags of household rubbish blocking roadside drains.
“The main litter was high energy drink cans and bottles, wine and beer bottles and take away cartons”.
“We cleared every road from Doneyloop to Ringsend to near Kilclean Border and Drumbane Border and litter picked as far as Clady Village. The local Community Group in Clady came out and cleaned the footpath at Doneyloop as a cross border gesture and we were delighted to have their support. Tea and scones was on us though!” laughed Brid.
“It was a great community event, plenty of fun but we couldn’t believe the amount of rubbish that is thrown out of cars. There is without doubt a much heightened sense of pride now in the area and we are hoping to join our group ‘Doneyloop Community Group’ with ‘Clady Community Group’ in an effort to make this a bi-monthly cross border exercise”.
A Clean Sweep for the Mountain Road:
Meanwhile, the Mountain Road between Buncrana and Carndonagh was left spick and span on Saturday last by volunteers from the Sliabh Sneacht Centre and Buncrana Tidy Towns.
Pearse McCrory, Litter Warden with Donegal County Council said “this group collected at least 150 bags of rubbish along this road on Saturday. It was a tremendous effort by local people on terrain that is not easy to access at the best of times. However, the weather stayed dry and the volunteers did a great job.
“There was all types of stuff collected from old tyres, to items thrown out of car windows. It is shocking to see the amount of recyclable material dumped when this can be easily recycled free of charge at one of the Council’s 72 bring banks around the county.”
Pearse also paid tribute to Noel O’Donnell the driver of the Councils Litter Van who spent the afternoon collecting the rubbish gathered by the volunteers along the route.
“As always Noel went over and above the call of duty making a number of trips to collect all the rubbish bagged by the volunteers and I would like to say a special thanks to him for his hard work and commitment.”
The volunteers were treated to a well earned cup of tea and refreshments in the Sliabh Sneacht Centre following the clean up.
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