This article is from page 5 of the 2014-07-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 5 JPG
THE dog days are coming to an end on two of Clare’s flagship seaside resorts as a new loud-speaker system, designed to prevent dog fouling, has just been installed on Lahinch and Kilkee beaches.
The new high-tech tannoy system, which was installed on both beaches yesterday afternoon, will give beach users an audio warning, asking them to obey the beach bylaws and clean up after their dogs.
The system is motion activated, with a message being played every time a member of the public, or indeed a dog, comes close to the sensor array, which is located on the promenade of both beaches.
Contrary to local speculation, the system will not include a high frequency warning that can only be heard by dogs, but will be powered off at night to prevent the warning from becoming a nuisance to local people trying to get to sleep.
The public address system is the latest part of Clare County Council efforts to change public attitudes towards littering and is the brainchild of new Irish company, Riteview.
The company have been in Lahinch and Kilkee for the past two weeks, conducting a survey of dog use on the beach and the level of dog fouling. Company founder, Aidan McDermott, yesterday predicted an 60 to 80 per cent reduction in dog fouling over the next month.
“It’s a small unit which is attached onto a poll on the promenade in Kilkee and Lahinch. When somebody walks past it triggers an audio message.
“This audio message is customisable so it can whatever the local authority want, so in Lahinch and Kilkee it will focus on cleaning up after your dog fouling.
“It’s about changing people’s attitudes and the culture generally. The idea is to make it socially unacceptable for someone to turn a blind eye as their dog leaves fouls in the beaches. It is about tacking the unsightly nature of dog foul and the health ef- fects, it can be a dangerous thing for children, especially in seaside areas when they are digging in the sand. It will also shut down at night. So if people coming home from the pub want to have some fun by triggering it off over and over again, they won’t be able to.
“We are tracking the results in Kilkee and Lahinch. We have been doing an analysis over the past number of weeks and assessed things like the number of dogs on the promenade, the peak times of the day for dog walkers and the level of dog fouling. We will be tracking the results from the Clare beaches and we would hope to see improvement of at least 60 per cent but it could be as high as 80 per cent or higher.
“This is a preventative measure. It a positive message about changing people’s behaviour and saving money, both for the dog owners themselves and the overheads for the council who won’t have as many prosecutions to follow through on.”
Riteview is an Irish start-up company based in NUI, Maynooth.