The offensive, unpleasant stench of raw sewage, emanated from the manhole covers in lower Liberty Square, Thurles, again yesterday, warning us of possibly some other impending future danger.
Motorists slowly passing through this now drive-through only area, quickly closed their car windows as they queued up in dense traffic to exit.
Local people passing through the Square, will have noted that in the late evenings over the past week; since the Thurles Music Festival, there has been a major effort to wash the dark stains from the pale coloured, Chinese granite stone; sadly to little avail.
The stains despite all efforts still remain, as Thurles.Info had pointed out in their initial planning submission; latter requested by Tipperary Co. Council, from the public, some four years previously; none of which, as expected, was ever read and certainly not heeded.
But now the town centre faces a new more sinister long-term problem, which we invite council officials, to rise up from their paperless desks and observe.
No, the problem is not failing to water the flowers; not the stench of sewage; not the failure to turn off street lighting, burning 24 hours per day. No it is not even the total lockdown of this area as Emergency Services attempt to either pass through or attend to urgent situations within this area as observed yesterday; no it’s chewing gum.
See images hereunder, reminiscent of Oxford Circus tube station, in the West End of London.
When Thurles street surfaces was constructed of black tarmac and much wider; to the casual observer, chewing gum went unnoticed.
Today the worst area is around the front of Historic Hayes Hotel, were teenage disco goers congregate on Friday nights. [After all, one must keep ones breath fresh in the event of that inevitable kiss, and with the non availability of suitable litter bins to accommodate ……… well enough said, what is the point, our elected representatives and officials are either totally deaf, or suffering from the Dunning Kruger Effect.]
Has Chewing Gum Ever Been Banned Anywhere?
Answer is yes – Singapore – that sovereign diamond shaped island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia, located at the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula.
Today, Singapore tops the list as the world’s most welcoming city, offering a safe environment to visitors, and it is one place where chewing gum is totally banned.
This ban on chewing gum was first introduced by Mr Harry Lee Kuan Yew, in 1992, adding to their other stiff laws with regard to graffiti, littering, spitting, expelling nasal mucus, jaywalking and urinating anywhere other than in a toilet. It is also against the law to fail to flush a public toilet.
Harry Lee Kuan Yew (LKY), latter a highly regarded Singaporean statesman and barrister, who served as the first Prime Minister of Singapore, between 1959 and 1990; saw the habit of spitting out chewing gum as a filthy, unhealthy habit and suggested that “if people can’t think, because they can’t chew, they should try chewing bananas”.
In Singapore today, the public will face a hefty fine for spitting out chewed gum, with same offence also doubling as “Littering“.
Time to get out the WD-40 Multi-Use and the long handled scrapers before then washing to get rid of the fish oil (WD-40).
It seems our Municipal District Council and Tipperary Co. Council are not finished wasting taxpayers money on our town centre, for the foreseeable future, as businesses vanish from the landscape.
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