Call for public to provide proof of rubbish disposal

A suggestion that Westmeath County Council should have the power to call to households and ask them to prove how they dispose of their rubbish was made by Cllr Johnnie Penrose at the October meeting of Westmeath County Council.

He said there are houses that are not leaving out bins and they should be asked to account for where their refuse ends up.

He said private refuse collectors should also be asked to assist the council by providing information on what number of bins are being left out.

"It’s simple," he said, adding that he knew of houses that never leave out bins and he was sure every other councillor did as well.

Senior environmental engineer Ciarán Jordan revealed that recent legislation allows the council to operate what’s called a reverse register, which allows it to ask waste collectors to provide details of people using their waste collection services.

He said there is a process involved and that is subject to data protection, but the advantage is it allows the council to develop targeted measures at people who do not have a waste collection service.

Mr Jordan went on to say that not using a waste collection service is not an offence in itself as people may be availing of other options, such as bin sharing or use of their own composting arrangements or use of the civic community site.

However, he continued, there was an obligation on them to provide documentary proof that they had arrangements in place.

Cllr John Dolan remarked that he had suggested an arrangement like that in the past and believed that if a person were employed full-time in doing that sort of checks, similar to how the TV licence inspectors operate, the savings would pay that person’s salary.

"If someone is doing it right, they have nothing to hide," he said.