The Fianna Fáil Local Election candidates in the Boyle Municipal District have announced they will run a poster free campaign in line with the will of the people and the Tidy Towns movement in the region.
Following a meeting of candidates and Directors of Elections in the Boyle Municipal District earlier this week, sitting councillors John Cummins, Joe Murphy and candidate Aidan Sampey it was agreed that all three Fianna Fáil candidates would opt for a poster free campaign.
In a joint statement the Fianna Fáil candidates outline the reasons for their decision: “We are very conscious of the great work carried out by various Tidy Towns groups throughout the region and from an environmental and community point of view we do not want to contribute to littering problems in the countryside. We must all do our best to keep our communities, towns and villages litter free and in line with the will of the people we felt it was important that we all embrace a poster free campaign and we would urge all candidates in the Boyle Municipal District to embrace this policy.
“Corriboard is the material of choice for election posters. Like other single use plastics, they take 400+ years to biodegrade. In the 2014 local elections, an estimated 611,000 posters were erected with a combined cost of €3M with posters covering the equivalent area of 23 Croke Parks and the majority of these posters were sent to landfill.
“Thanks to collaboration between Tidy Towns, Environmental Groups and Local Councillors, nine areas around Ireland already have poster free agreements in place and we are happy to join the growing numbers adopting a poster free policy. This positive reception to poster free zones reflects the public’s growing environmental interest and appetite for a poster free election,” concluded the joint statement from the Fianna Fáil candidates in the Boyle Municipal District.
