According to reports in today’s Leitrim Observer, all sitting Councillors and candidates in the Carrick on Shannon area have agreed not to use election posters in the forthcoming Local Elections.

Well, I’m a candidate in Carrick and Shannon and this is news to me.

2 weeks ago, I received a call from Cllr. Gerry Reynolds asking if I was interested in forming a consensus that no candidates would use posters.

I told Cllr. Reynolds that I had already ordered and paid for 30 posters, and that I did not agree with the initiative anyway, as it would unfairly advantage sitting Councillors, who have had 5 years, at the taxpayers expense, to promote their capabilities to the voters of County Leitrim.

This was the last I heard of the matter until I read the report in the Leitrim Observer. Clearly, the sitting Councillors are trying to pressurise new candidates like myself into submitting to their wishes. Personally, I find the idea of sitting Councillors deciding how other candidates should run their election campaigns to be a little undemocratic.

For what its worth, I will erect 30 election posters. These will be re-cyclable E-Board, not the highly polluting CorriBoard used by other parties. I will used bright green cable ties to erect these posters. All posters and ties will be removed by June 10th. I will not erect any poster on the main street of any town or village in the electoral area.

And all of my posters will feature a ‘Litter Costs Jobs’ message to promote awareness of tidy towns in the run up to the tourist season.