Councillors in Offaly call for stronger punishments for litter and waste offenders
THE councillors of Birr Municipal District made a call for stronger punishments for litter and waste offenders during their July monthly meeting in Birr Civic Offices.
“We should be sending out a strong message for these offenders,” stated Cllr John Clendennen, who pointed out that the culture of fly tipping was continuing unabated on our roadsides and in the countryside. He said car drivers often throw out coffee cups, fast food wrapping and sweet wrappers into the road verges “which is going against the hard work of our Tidy Towns groups.”
Mark Mahon of the Environment section of the County Council told the Councillors that the Council's Waste, Air and Noise Team has received 54 waste complaints since the beginning of January 2024. “50 of the cases have been inspected,” Mr Mahon said. “18 are closed and 20 referred to Housing for action. We also received 13 noise complaints, all of which have been inspected. Three of the noise complaints have been closed; the open cases will be resolved following further enforcement action. We had seven air quality complaints. All of the air quality complaints were investigated and resolved.” He said the Noise Action Plan can be viewed on the Council's website.
Mr Mahon pointed out that the Council has established an Oversight Board which is going to erect more CCTV cameras around the county to combat litter and waste offending. County Councils around Ireland are also using drones to counteract illegal waste activities. Mr Mahon said the new CCTV cameras will be installed in litter black spots. He said the Council must adhere to GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) guidelines when choosing sites for installation.
He added that while the Waste, Air and Noise team had received 54 waste complaints, the Environment section also received 44 “Litter Control” complaints in June 2024 alone. Other complaints which were made in June included Abandoned Vehicles (two complaints), Air Pollution (three complaints), Control of Dogs (10), and Water Quality (2). All of these complaints have been investigated by the Council.
The meeting was told that a Mattress Amnesty will happen soon in Birr Civic Amenity Site. The Civic Amenity Sites in Derryclure (near Tullamore) and Edenderry are well supported by locals. However the footfall in Birr isn't as high. “We are actively working with Oxigen,” remarked Mr Mahon, “to try and increase the footfall in the Birr Amenity Site. We are trying to get the word out there that these Amenity Sites/Recycling Centres are very useful places for people where you can get rid of a lot of stuff for free.”
He added that, in relation to the Control of Dogs, “In the first half of the year we have cared for over 100 dogs in the Dog Shelter and on average 15% of the dogs are reclaimed by their owners, 15% are rehomed by the Care of Dogs Team and the other 70% are rehomed through animal rescue charities. The Control of Dogs teams has also dealt with 47 complaints so far this year and has assisted the Gardaí on a number of raids and have carried out inspections of premises under Dog Breeding Establishment and Animal Health and Welfare legislation.
“Regarding Control of Horses, to date in 2024 we have dealt with 11 complaints. There have been no seizures to date.”
Cllr Clendennen said the Birr Amenity Site should have amnesties for other items as well, not just mattresses. “I'm keen to publicise this excellent facility as much as possible,” he remarked.
Cllr Seán Maher welcomed the proposed roll-out of CCTV cameras at litter black spots. “This is long overdue,” he said. “I've seen a lot of illegal dumping in rural areas, often in out of the way places.” The councillor pointed out that there's a lot of road traffic in Birr every day and he wondered how it's impacting the town's air quality. He was told by the Area Engineer John Mitchell that there's an air quality monitoring box beside the town's playground. The readings from this can be read on a daily basis on the website airquality.ie. Here, the concentration of three air pollutants are given in micrograms (one-millionth of a gram) per cubic metre of air (written as µg/m3). The air pollutants are nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter. The air quality in Birr is considered to be at a good level.
Cllr Audrey Hennessy Kennedy said if the signage for the Birr Civic Amenity Site was improved then more people would use it. “Better road directional signs would alert a lot more people to its existence,” she remarked.
Cllr Peter Ormond said he's a member of the Shinrone Tidy Towns group “and we've seen a big reduction in the number of plastic bottles littering the road verges since the Deposit Return Scheme for Bottles began a couple of months ago. However, the fly tipping of other items such as fast food wrapping is still a major problem. The roll-out of CCTV cameras in our litter black spots can't come quickly enough.”
The councillor added that he has received a number of complaints about uncontrolled dogs wandering around towns and villages, some of whom were on the dangerous breeds list.