Beauty Spot transformed into tip

Westmeath County Council may review its maintenance of 'The Cut' after visitors to the amenity turned the north Westmeath beauty spot into a rubbish tip.The Cut, an area of Lough Lene just outside Collinstown, is a popular spot for everyone, young and old, especially when the weather is fine. The bank holiday weekend had exceptionally good weather attracting large numbers to the area.From early Sunday evening, local people report the area became like 'an open air bar' with many people who had young children leaving 'The Cut' rather than have their youngsters exposed to the anti-social behaviour occurring there.Coole Area Engineer Graham Niven told the Westmeath Examiner that the area had an operative dedicated to the maintenance of the Lough Lene amenity but following recent financial restrictions, they were no longer rostered on weekends as would have been in the case previously.'With the exceptional weather we had an unusually large influx of people into a relatively small amenity. While there was an apparent lack of respect for the facility which is provided and maintained by the County Council my job is to address the issues which arose during the Bank Holiday Weekend. We have to scope the job and solve the problem.'Lough Lene will be as clean as a whistle for visitors arriving this weekend but it may be that we will have to discuss with the County Manager weekend checks of the amenity when we have exceptionally good weather,' explained Graham.One local father, who also made an official complaint to the council about what he witnessed at the lake, described the scenes which unfolded in front of him and his teenage sons and 7 year old daughter.'There were large groups of young ones arriving with boxes of beer and wine and scores of people openly drinking alcohol in public. It was like a big open air bar.'There was rubbish floating in the lake and people were just getting up from where they were and walking away without clearing the rubbish. Huge piles of rubbish were beginning to grow around already full bins.'A woman changed her baby"s nappy in front of me and just threw the nappy to one side. I said to her, 'When that baby grows up, wouldn"t you like him to be able to come back and have a swim here. She told me where to go!"'The Glenidan father, who wishes to remain nameless was one of the many people to contact the Westmeath Examiner asking for a photographer to come out to record the filthy mess left behind by the daytrippers.In 2006, Lough Lene lost its precious Blue Flag in spite of considerable local authority investment and work.The bathing area has been submitted to tremendous pressure due to vandalism, littering, and other impacts such as loose dogs and dog faeces which the public has direct control over.Litter accounted for a majority of the issues encountered by An Taisce inspectors at the site and cost the beach its flag.'We are supposed to be trying to get our Blue Flag status back.When people come they should leave no trace of their visit, it"s a disgrace a sickening disgrace and it wasn"t just one person, or a dozen people. It"s total disregard for the area and local people seemed to be the rule not the exception,' said the angry dad.