Fly tipping a huge draw on council resources
A Virginia-based councillor is calling for public consultation in relation to the scourge of littering and illegal dumping with a view to finding solutions to the problem for one and for all.
Cllr T.P. O’Reilly (FG) made the call at the recent meeting of the Ballyjamesduff Municipal District Authority online. In particularly, he was flagging growing litter problems in and around Virginia.
Cllr O’Reilly said the public feel they have no say in relation to solving the litter problems or that nobody is listening to their views.
He suggested providing an email address where civid-minded people could mail their suggestions over the period of a week.
“We could inform them that now is the chance to have your say and you are being given a hearing,” said Cllr T.P. O’Reilly.
Executive Engineer, John McGahern, told the councillors that the cost of cleaning up fly tipping sites is a significant drain on the district’s resources. He warned the public that leaving bags of rubbish at bottle banks constitutes “fly tipping” and committed to bringing the issues raised back to the Waste Management department.
Supporting the motion, Cllr Shane P. O’Reilly said it was a “county wide problem”.
“During these Covid times, I don’t know what seems to be going on with people but the illegal dumping and fly tipping has increased three fold and it is not good enough. We have been on the hind leg for the past number of years as regards investment in our Waste Management Department of our council,” said the Independent councillor.
“We used to have three litter full time wardens for the entire county. We don’t any more. We are down on staff to deal with this problem,” added Cllr S P. O’Reilly.
He further called on the judiciary to “come down with with the full rigours of the law” on offenders.
Cllr S P. O’Reilly also warned against bogus waste collectors or “the lad in the van” who are taking advantage of some people.
“He is bringing stuff off and dumping it in areas as well.”
Cllr Winston Bennett (FG) agreed it is a county-wide problem.
“If you drive a mile out any road out of any village and see the amount of lucozade bottles, empty pizza cartons and other litter, all just flung out the car window. It is unbelievable!”
He added: “I believe if you had 110 wardens, it would still happen. You have to catch them in the act.”
Cllr Trevor Smith (FG) said there needs to be a campaign of naming and shaming offenders.
Cllr Craig Lovett (FF) agreed. “These people have to be caught and when, they are caught, they have to be named as well.”
Engineer Mr McGahern revealed the scale of the problem. “I lose two crews for one full day a week – that is two crew days I lose to empty litter bins. In the summer time, when people make more use of civic amenities, that is doubled and that is not counting when there are significant fly tipping incidents and I would lose two or three crews to that single fly tip in one day.
“They are all resources that come straight off our roads. We don’t have a set of men out there and all they do is empty litter bins. We have a small set of resources to do everything.
“This thing of littering and fly-tipping takes from what we are trying to do every day of the week to try and maintain our roads and it is a significant drain on the district’s resources,” outlined the engineer.