Letter: In defence of election posters in Mayo urban centres
Sir,
I am writing to you in defence of political posters, which over the recent years have been demonised across the country by Tidy Towns committees, community groups and residents associations as unsightly.
While there are genuine concerns over their recycling and the litter of uncollected cable tie, posters play a vital roles in the democratic process by creating awareness of elections, candidates and issues in a simple and relatively cheap way.
We take our democracy for granted and banning posters is just a real indication of how much we fail to appreciate being able to choose our leaders.
In particular, political posters create awareness of new candidates and of the election process itself and banning them from towns and villages or indeed everywhere is a retrograde step for a modern democracy even when these bans are unofficial.
Posters are not by themselves "unsightly," they are a standard size and usually are well designed and are an inexpensive way for new and younger candidates to build up recognition among voters and banning them only favours existing political parties and politicians.
Political posters are already regulated on when and how long they can be hung for and where they can be hung.
Providing they follow the law, are not a hazard to road users or the public and are taken down and reused or recycled properly then they should be permitted.
These laws can be improved upon by limiting candidates to an amount of posters and by issuing them with marked cable ties to ensure their removal and posters could and should be 100% recyclable.
These measures are simple and easy to enact.
The truth is that the hand wringing and pearl clutching over their perceived "unsightliness" of such posters must not be allowed to strip democracy of free expression of candidates to spread news of their candidature to the electorate.
I call upon the national Tidy Towns association to send a clear message to all local committees that the Tidy Towns does not oppose proper and safe political postering.
There are real issues facing our community and country. Posters are not one of them.
Yours,
Keith Martin
33 Pairc na Coille,
Westport