New task-force plans to clamp down on litter in the county

A new committee has been formed by members of the Municipal District of Mullingar Kinnegad (MDMK) in a bid to find a ways of dealing with the growing illegal dumping problem that the mayor, Cllr Bill Collentine, says is costing half a million euro of taxpayers’ money each year.

“If this was a business and they continued to spend that kind of money on an annual basis, they would have to solve the problem very quickly,” Cllr Collentine told officials and fellow councillors at the May meeting of the MDMK, on Monday of last week.

“This problem has to be solved – one way or another,” he stated, adding that every single member of the district committee has raised the subject for discussion at one stage or other.

Cllr Collentine was speaking on his formal question to the executive asking what new litter measures, if any, are being examined to solve the continuing issue of litter. The response from the executive stated that the Litter Management Plan, adopted by the members of the district committee in April, spelt out the litter management plans for the future.

“There has to be an answer to this and therefore we are going to have to look at other solutions,” he stated, citing bottle and can return schemes, mobile CCTV cameras and full-time rural litter wardens as measures that might help with the issue.

Other possible strategies could, he said, involve requiring landlords to produce waste disposal receipts covering their tenants, or requiring social housing tenants to produce receipts.

On Mullingar’s problems, Cllr Collentine said the littering issue along the canal would not be solved unless bins are provided. There was also a need for more convictions and heavier fines, and a need to work with schools and other groups on litter awareness, he said.

Cllr Collentine made the shock claim that some business people are dumping their business waste in public litter bins, and that there are households doing likewise.

“There are even people bringing bags into town and putting bits in this bin and bits in the next one,” he stated.

Praising the level of voluntary effort going into solving the problem of litter, Cllr Collentine said it was not fair to those volunteers to allow the activities of the minority who dump to go unchecked.

“It’s time we put in a solution that would put an end to the actions of these irresponsible offenders,” he said.

Director of services Deirdre Reilly said the mayor was correct: “It really is a problem for us,” she said, adding that the council use social media to raise awareness and it works with schools – but it wasn’t an easy problem to solve as so often it went down to personal choices.

Ms Reilly suggested that a sub-committee be appointed to consider solutions.

Membership

The members of the new anti-litter group are to be: Cllrs Frank McDermott; Denis Leonard; Ken Glynn; Bill Collentine; Aoife Davitt and Andrew Duncan.

Mullingar Chamber of Commerce is also to be asked to nominate a member.

Council officials are to draw up the terms of reference for the group.