Election poster numbers to be capped?

The familiar sight of hundreds upon hundreds of campaign posters during the leadup to elections in county Cork may be a thing of the past.

During Tuesday’s full meeting of Cork County Council, many elected members agreed that the number of posters used by candidates before going to the polls should be strictly limited going forward.

Councillors also agreed there should be designated areas for postering outside of each town and village in the county, adhering to the widely agreed policy of not erecting posters within the 50km speed zone of a town.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Frank O’Flynn said there is a proud tradition in Fermoy and surrounding areas of not having posters in towns.

“If I had my way, there'd be no posters,” he said.

“If you need posters to get elected, you’ve a very, very big issue. I've used the same poster since I was elected in 1999 and they tell me I'm getting younger.”

“I'll tell you what will get you elected; work, work, work,” he added.

Social Democrats Cllr Ann Bambury, who was elected for the first time last year, said a designated postering area would solve a lot of problems. “Having just gone through one election process, the postering definitely was the most stressful part of the whole process,” said Cllr Bambury.

“I think if we had designated areas outside of towns, it would resolve a lot of the problems that people encounter when they're postering.

“I think it gives everyone an even keel for elections,” she added.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Audrey Buckley, who has campaigned at length to rid her town of Carrigaline of election posters, said she has used the same 80 posters in a past two local elections.“I do agree that new counsellors need posters, but this 700/800 posters has to go. It has to stop,” she said.

Independent Cllr Mary Linehan Foley took the idea a step further, saying candidates should be limited to one poster per town.

“The bigger parties, to be fair, spend thousands upon thousands on posters and it's very hard sometimes as an Independent to compete with this,” said the former mayor. “There should be a designated area in each municipal district for one large poster of each candidate and that would let people know who's going forward.”

The discussion around election posters was prompted by a motion from Fianna Fáil Cllr Gearoid Murphy calling for clarity on the powers possessed by councillors to create bylaws banning the use of election posters in specified towns.

He said: “The motion arises from the agreement that election posters aren't to be erected within 50km (speed zone) of a town’s boundaries. These customs are generally maintained by agreement between the different candidates, often in consultation with the local tidy towns.

“The problem is there's often no real clarity as to exactly where these rules will apply and there certainly is no formal method of enforcing it,” added Cllr Murphy.

He went on to underline that his motion was not about “any sort of wider ban on posters” but rather to allow for the formalisation of long existing customs at a local level.

Cork County Council’s executive agreed to write to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne TD, seeking the powers for local representatives to make such bylaws.