The term Tidy Towns bothers me for a few reasons, not least of which the fact the TT competition is about a lot of things not just tidying up the town. It bothers me when we were asked recently to organise a big tidy up in advance of one of the many festivals that are going on this year. (I was too busy at work at the time and, given our small numbers, thought why should we be the ones to tidy up for other organisations? Just saying...)
Anyway, getting back to personal responsibility, why don't people just pick up their own litter? Mostly they do. But this morning on my walk with Rover arriving at at Brian Boru's fort, I noticed a lot of litter. It wasn't there yesterday, for sure. I met a few young people who had been camping there overnight and I asked them "who's in charge?". They were leaving at the time, and one of them, nodded back into the direction of the centre of the fort, saying "Brendan" so I went in search of Brendan. There was no Brendan and nobody in charge. One young guy got a black bag (a good sign, folks) and started picking up before we left.
I was thinking on the way home: Somebody has to be in charge, no matter what the undertaking. What if some accident had happened there last night? Or if somebody got an asthma attack? Psychological research has shown that when a bunch of people are present where emergencies, accidents, etc. happen, it is often the case that nothing is done because everybody expects somebody else to do something.
Two things I learned from this:
1. I think they were suspicious of my motives. Although they were pleasant enough, it could have gone better. I should have explained that I was only concerned about the litter and not bothered that they had camped there. I just wanted them to realise that is so important to keep the fort clean and tidy (I know) especially during the Millenium year.
2. Somebody has to be in charge. That applies to the Tidy Towns committee too.
