Council monitoring list of dumping blackspots

Litter Management Plan discussion

Clubs and community groups should collect bottles and cans and nominate someone to bring them to the Re-Turn vending machines. Groups who put up signs, for or against planning applications, should take them down once planning has been refused or granted. And the public should co-operate in combating illegal dumping and other negative activities at lakeshores.

Those were some of the suggestions that emerged during a discussion of a new Litter Management Plan for the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad at their May meeting.

Proposing the adoption of the plan, Cllr Denis Leonard claimed there had been a poor uptake on the Re-Turn initiative. He called for more of what is recycled to be reused in Ireland, rather than sent abroad.

Cllr Leonard urged the council to stop collecting what is dumped illegally and put the resources into supporting community clean-ups.

Cllr Ken Glynn said activities at the lakeshores were eating into council resources. He praised the Tidy Towns for their help in “picking up after people that don’t care,” and he welcomed the provision of dog waste bins in Mullingar and hoped they would be extended along the greenway.

Cllr Aoife Davitt said it was not just dumping, but noise pollution and other issues that needed to be tackled at the lakeshores. “We have to stop wasting our budget on people that are not adding to our economy,” she said. She asked that bins be placed at key locations and CCTV cameras used to catch offenders.

In the east of the county, from Caddagh to Raharney, the area has been “polluted with signs”, according to Cllr Frank McDermott. “When a project applies for planning and is granted or refused, signs should come down,” he stated. He said that these signs get “fatigued” and fall down eventually, and then the council and the taxpayers have to pick them up.

The cover photograph on the Litter Management Plan was taken at Fore and featured students from Castlepollard Community College, and Cllr McDermott, who was attending his last district meeting, said it will be “a treasure for me going forward”.

Cllr Emily Wallace raised the issue of community groups and clubs using the Re-Turn system to raise funds. “Could we put a programme in place to facility them?” she asked. “It would raise funds and help us clean up areas and it would facilitate businesses that do not have the capacity to store the bottles.”

Cllr Wallace said the bottle bank in Rochfortbridge was removed three years ago and has not been replaced. She asked that in future, before a bring bank is removed, an alternative site be found. She also asked that a telephone number be provided to call if the banks are full and that subcontractors be penalised if they do not respond.

Unauthorised waste collectors are collecting rubbish door to door and then “dumping it in our beautiful countryside”, Cllr Wallace claimed. People should know that they can be penalised for inadvertently contributing to dumping if they engage such collectors, she said. “Make sure they have a permit,” she said.

Deirdre Reilly, director of services, suggested that clubs should continue to collect recyclable bottles and cans and nominate someone to take them to the Re-turn banks and get receipts.

The meeting was told that the council have a list of dumping blackspots which will be monitored and updated regularly. CCTV cameras will be provided on a rotating basis.

Bring banks and bottle banks are inspected regularly, but Cllr Wallace was assured that her proposal and comments would be considered.

Ms Reilly said the council were at the mercy of the public, especially when trying to place bring banks. They are removed when they become a nuisance for the landowners, she said.

In respect of the lakeshores, Ms Reilly said the executive had put together a strategy. During recent good weather, focus had been on Ladestown where extra patrols were picking up litter, but she said the council need the co-operation of the public in respect of bye laws.