Illegal dumping: Do you recognise this trailer abandoned on Offaly back road?

INDISCRIMINATE dumping has once again shocked a rural community in Offaly.

A trailer containing refuse was abandoned in Derrygolan last week and this morning (Monday, October 9) residents discovered that the same road was partially blocked by a load of garden waste.

Local man Tom McGowan said he contacted the County Council and the gardai about the trailer.

He said it is in good condition and was left at a spot where dumping of construction waste often takes place.

While dumping is not unusual in the area, which is easily accessible off the main Tullamore/Portlaoise road, he has never seen those responsible leave their trailer behind, especially one still capable of carrying livestock and worth up to €500. 

The trailer contains general household waste, including a flatscreen television.  A pony collar is attached to the front of the trailer.

“The council said they'd be out tomorrow to empty it. [Dumping] is not too bad lately but this thing is something new. This is here since last Thursday. I asked the guards about it and because there's no identifying numbers on it they can't do anything.”

A local farmer, who did not wish to be named, said the trailer had been seen last week on the roadside off the Tullamore bypass near the Tullamore DEW distillery.

“It's right out on the road. There's a big pile of clippings,” he said. “I'll be coming back with the tractor and I might push it in a bit. It's ridiculous.”

He said dumping often takes place in the Cloncon, Meelaghans and Killeenmore areas and he called for more prosecutions and those convicted to be “named and shamed”.

Meanwhile, Mr McGowan said he is considering putting “a couple of big rocks” at the spot where the trailer was left to prevent people pulling in.

“It's too easy for people to swing in there, they're swinging in there all the time.”

He also told of a previous encounter he had with people dumping.

“I've seen before where they drove into a bog with a car on the back of a trailer full of rubbish and I went down straight away after them with the quad and here they were unloading the car off the trailer and I said you may put that back up. And I recognised one or two of them.”

He contacted the gardai and the council about what he had witnessed.