€7,000 cleanup after Halloween bonfire carnage
THE destruction left in the aftermath of Halloween bonfires this year has reportedly cost Wexford County Council somewhere between €6,000 and €7,000. The topic was brought up for discussion at last week’s meeting of Enniscorthy Municipal District Council and Cllr Johnny Mythen costed the clean-up at somewhere near €7,000.
The level of destruction and dumping at bonfire sites in estates such as Cluain Dara and Sean Browne Court this year appeared to reach unprecedented levels and Cllr Mythen said that something would have to be done.
‘Could we not put out big bins in these estates at that time of year and encourage people to use them,’ he asked. ‘It might cost us a couple of thousand, but it’s better than spending €7,000 on a clean-up operation.’
District Manager Liz Hore said that an inter-agency meeting with the Fire Service, Gardaí, the Department of the Environment and council officials was due to take place with the goal of discussing how best to tackle the problem next year.
‘Apart from everything else, it was really dangerous,’ said Cllr Mythen. ‘You have people dumping aerosol cans into the fire. A child could lose a hand or something.’
Cllr Keith Doyle said he didn’t believe that putting bins or skips out would solve the issue.
‘We used to have a week where we’d put out skips,’ he recalled. ‘What happened then was they were nearly full before they even hit the ground. We need to be careful about how we deal with this.’
Cllr Paddy Kavanagh agreed with the Chairman. ‘I couldn’t see leaving skips out as a solution,’ he said. ‘ The amount of rubbish drawn in from outside these estates this year was unreal. If we put out skips, they’d come from even further outside to dump their stuff. I think people need to take responsibility for where they live too.
‘While there are kids involved, there are also parents at these bonfires putting in aerosol cans and that kind of thing. I remember a gas cylinder was thrown into a bonfire one year by...I don’t know what you’d call them.’ ‘Gobshites!’ blasted Cllr Doyle quickly. ‘I think see this time of year as their chance to get rid of stuff,’ Cllr Kavanagh continued.
‘We can’t spend €7,000 on it every year anyway,’ said Cllr Mythen. ‘ This is happening every year and it’s escalating.’