Madam, - I am sure The Irish Times did not set out to denigrate the performance of Roscommon Town in the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) competition, but feel your report of December 10th did just that.
Madam, - I am sure The Irish Times did not set out to denigrate the performance of Roscommon Town in the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) competition, but feel your report of December 10th did just that.
The community achieved a tremendous result in extricating itself from a series of very disappointing performances in the early rounds of this litter control competition to be judged "litter free" in the final October assessment.
We were delighted to win the special award of "most improved town in Ireland". This involved a phenomenal local effort and a sea-change in attitude across all sections of the community.
But rather than recognising the success of reaching litter-free status for the very first time, your reporter perversely states that "the news [of results] was dampened by the fact that four towns [including Roscommon] had slipped out of the litter-free category". We are then told: "Despite its fall from grace, however, Roscommon was named the most improved town of the year". That's about as damming a put-down as I have come across, especially on a day when surely a modicum of praise is due.
Roscommon town has progressed very nicely in recent years and with substantial private investment now in place this is set to continue.
The town is fast becoming the residential location of choice in the region and is expected to develop further due to its proximity to the Shannon and Athlone as a designated gateway city.
However, away from the major population centres as we are, we have to work that bit harder for what success we achieve. Hence, all the more devastating to be denied our snippet of good news last Tuesday.- Yours, etc.,
MAURICE BUCKLEY,
Chamber Of Commerce,
Roscommon Town,
Co Roscommon.