I have concerns over the police use of CCTV in small towns like Westport (pop. 5,000) as I feel not only is the population too small to require such an expensive system but that as we are such a small town it is very likely that the those watching you will in fact know you personally thus breaching your privacy.

I am opposed to whole scale CCTV surveillance as I think it breaches my rights as a citizen to go about my business without being subjected to surveillance. I also believe that CCTV is used to justify less Gardai on the streets.

I don't believe that CCTV is either effective as a deterrent to crime or as a useful tool for crime solving. The number of cases it is used in is low and the number of convictions even lower.

I am not on my own on this one. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has concerns in this area also. According to the ICCL "a series of studies that seriously questions the effectiveness of CCTV in preventing crime. Certainly, CCTV does not seem to achieve anything that can't be achieved by common sense measures such as better street lighting or more effective police patrols in city-centres.

"In recent years, many politicians have suggested that extensive spending on camera schemes was a panacea to street crime. Now it is clear that this is not the case. What is also disturbing is that the impact of such schemes on the privacy rights of the public at large has been largely ignored."

You can read more about that here.

Accrding to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, staff must be made aware that CCTV is in place and what the purpose of the cameras are. If staff are told that the cameras are there to protect staff against violent customers that’s the only thing they can be used for.

CCTV cameras can’t be used for monitoring attendance at work or to see whether staff are sitting at their desk all day long.

For more information on this read this article

There is also an interesting blog in the UK on this subject and the issues involved here.

So the issue is not as black and white as some people claim and I hope that after reading this post you might see my concerns or at least have questions over such systems. CCTV is not benign, it does affect your rights. Think about it before you support it in your town or area.

(I do however accept that it is necessary in areas like O'Connell St and high crime areas but this should be the exception not the norm)

Don't let them give you the" eye in the sky", demand more Gardai on your streets instead.

Note: we don't have CCTV in Westport..........yet!!

Westport is to become the first Fairtrade town in Connaught and joins the Fairtrade city of Galway in leading the way for other towns in the region. The announcement was made on Friday that Westport will receive its official Fairtrade status this week piping Castlebar to the post by just over a week.

Westport’s Fairtrade Steering Committee was established in early 2005 with the aim of making achieving Fairtrade status for the town. The committee members are Edel Hackett, Mary Walsh, Roisin Moran, Sue Minish, Brian Quinn, Cllr Keith Martin, Gemma Hennesy, Sheila O’Donnell and Bríd McAuley.

Last Friday committee member Mary Walsh received a written confirmation for Fairtrade Ireland that Westport had met all the required conditions and would now be conferred with the Fairtrade town status.

At last week’s council meeting I expressed grateful thanks to the people of Westport, Westport Town Council and the businesses and shoppers of the town for their support of the Fairtrade ideal. I said that the councillors' unanimous support for the proposal and the support of the council’s staff had made a huge difference to their campaign.

Ever since we established the Steering committee we have been out and about spreading the word about Fairtrade and what it means for farmers and producers in the developing world. When we started in 2005 with a tea and coffee morning after church in Carrowbeg House we never dreamed that we would get such support and that people would embrace the idea so quickly. We owe a lot to the shoppers of Westport who made the switch to Fairtrade tea, coffee, bananas, wine, chocolate and the whole range of projects. We are also grateful to the shops, cafes, restaurants, schools, businesses and organisations which made the switch over to the Fairtrade mark. The children of Westport in particular took the Fairtrade project to heart.

The Fairtrade committee are planning a celebratory tea and coffee morning for the New Year and also hope to have a ceremony to mark the town’s achievement towards the end of January.

In order to achieve the status of Fairtrade Town for Westport the town had to accomplish the following.
A local steering group is convened to ensure continued commitment to its Fairtrade Town status.
The Town Council passes a resolution supporting Fairtrade, and agrees to serve Fairtrade coffee and tea in the office and at all its meetings and continues to support the Fairtrade Mark.
A range of FAIRTRADE Mark products are available in the Town’s shops, supermarkets, local cafes, restaurants, and hotels.
FAIRTRADE Mark products are used by a Flagship business as well as 12 other local businesses and organisations.
This had to include schools, churches, large offices and local voluntary groups.
The group attracts media coverage and popular support for the campaign. A significant number of schools become Fairtrade Schools. They use the Civil Social and Political Education pack on Fairtrade for secondary schools and the Alive 2008 programme for Primary Schools.

Fairtrade is a better deal, a ‘fair’ deal for producers and workers in developing countries. Any product carrying the distinctive Fairtrade logo is guaranteed to have paid the farmer a fair price for his product, ensuring they were not exploited. You will be giving farmers in developing nations a fair day’s wage and the chance to improve the conditions for their families and communities, and isn’t that what we all ultimately want for ourselves?

Fairtrade Westport has a website at http://www.fairtradewestport.com/

Northern Ireland currently has 26 councils but under a Review of Public Administration undertaken by the British Government that is set to be slashed to just seven super councils with increased powers. This will come into effect inn 2009.

I think it is shameful that the UK is to reduce Northern Ireland's local authorities to seven "super" councils. The only thing "super" about these councils will be there massive increase in bureaucracy and the distance between them and the people, local issues and concerns they supposed to deal with.

Worse again there does not seem to be a great deal of opposition to this plan from the political parties of the six counties.

We in Westport are twinned with Limavady, one of the 26 councils that will now disappear up into what will be called "North-West Local Government District," (the name just trips of the tongue doesn't it).

Those from Limavady that I have spoken to are upset because they will be losing their Mayor and their council chamber as everything de-camps to Derry. This is not local government. This is regional government.

It would be the same as if Westport were to come under the administration of Galway. Swallowed up by a bigger neighbour who will be more concerned with their own troubles than the local issues.

Whatever the faults of local government are, and there are many, the solution is not to remove it even further from the communities it is supposed to serve and represent. The way to make local government more effective is to decentralise real power to it. Decisions need to be made at as local a level as possible.

It is ironic that as the UK and Ireland try to increase democracy and participation in the North and as they are setting up a six-county power-sharing body, at the same time, they are strangling local government.

Who will cry "Stop!"

Ever since we set up the Fairtrade committee in Janurary 2005 we have received great support from the people of Westport and from the businesses in town like Super Valu, Centra and Ylang Ylang. Both churches came on board immediately and we were able to launch it after Mass with a tea morning for the congregations of St Mary's and Holy Trinity.

With the unanimous support of my fellow councillors we passed a motion in support of Fairtrade products and began working on the seven steps to becoming a Fairtrade town.

Today Westport Fairtrade Steering Committee have been notified by Fairtrade Ireland that Westport is to be granted status this week. It will officially become a Fairtrade Town a week before Castlebar does.

I am delighted that our town has achieved Fairtrade Status and now becomes the first Fairtrade Town in Connaught to join Galway which is a Fairtrade city.

Fairtrade is a better deal, a ‘fair’ deal for producers and workers in developing countries. Any product carrying the distinctive Fairtrade logo is guaranteed to have paid the farmer a fair price for his product, ensuring they were not exploited. You will be giving farmers in developing nations a fair day’s wage and the chance to improve the conditions for their families and communities, and isn’t that what we all ultimately want for ourselves?

Ever since we established the Steering committee we have been out and about spreading the word about Fairtrade and what it means for farmers and producers in the developing world. When we started in 2004 with a tea and coffee morning after church in Carrowbeg House we never dreamed that we would get such support and that people would embrace the idea so quickly. We owe a lot to the shoppers of Westport who made the switch to Fairtrade tea, coffee, bananas, wine, chocolate and the whole range of projects. We are also grateful to the shops, cafes, restaurants, schools, businesses and organisations which made the switch over to the Fairtrade mark. The children of Westport in particular took the Fairtrade project to heart.

Over the last two years we on the committee have been at the Food and Craft Markets on the Mall, in the St Patrick’s Day Parade, in the schools, in the shops and on the streets spreading the word about Fairtrade. A highlight of our campaign was when Alivera Kiiza a Fairtrade Coffee famrer and the first woman manager of the fair-trade coffee cooperative in Tanzania was our guest at a talk about Fairtrade for the secondary schools.



In order to achieve the status of Fairtrade Town for Westport we had to accomplish the following.

A local steering group is convened to ensure continued commitment to its Fairtrade Town status.