Over one tonne of rubbish cleaned up by council

OVER one tonne of rubbish which measured around eighty square feet at Carrigduff was cleaned up by CCC on Tuesday June 6.

Residents in the region told The Corkman they were “at the end of their tether” as everything from domestic waste to construction rubble along with hundreds of nappies were dumped.

Nappies were either dumped in bags or seemed to have been spilled over into the vast illegal dumping ground.

The dumping was a serious thorn in the side of residents who also said that the amount of nappies that were dumped was “absolutely disgusting”.

CCC certainly had their work cut out for them as the rubbish was down an embankment about four metres below the road. However, at the end of the day, the rubbish was removed, a fence was put in place along with signage and importantly Big Brother now has his eyes on any culprit who fly-tips in the region.

Stephen O’Sullivan, Environmental Officer with CCC told The Corkman that “an active investigation” is on-going into the fly-tipping and “without question people can expect a knock on their door.”

CCC are taking a very pro-active approach to fly-tipping and are investigated in an effort to determined the offender in order to issue fines, where possible.

This site which has been a bug-bear not only for residents but equally so for CCC, however recently CCC got the green light for major funding under the Anti-Litter initiative, which was launched by Minister Denis Naughten.

Mr O’Sullivan said: “We are looking at a number of black spots in the region and we intend to target them by what ever means possible and if that means using drones, then so be it. We will use them. We are taking a very much pro-active stance on this problem.”

CCC got funding for 10 projects across the region of which Carrigduff in Mallow was listed. IN addition, there is a planned clean up of the Blackwater in conjunction with local organisations. The plan is to clean the river up and put up signage along with CCTV.

In addition, €3,000 was spent on the entrance to the Castlepark walkway along with some great help from Mallow Tidy Towns committee and Mallow Scouts.

Alex Grassick, Executive Scientist, Waste Enforcement at CCC, told The Corkman that CCC will finish phase one of their projects and then begin phase two. Nationally, the second phase received a very welcome cash of injection to the tune of €1.3 million. In the first phase, CCC received approximately €20,000 and for the second phase, it is hoped they will receive about €40,000 to fulfil their project work.

Mr Grassick paid a huge tribute to Mallow Tidy Towns Committee and said the voluntary organisation undertake “Trojan work” in the locality.

To report illegal dumping, contact the Anti-Litter Unit of CCC by phone at 021-4285417 or email antilitterunit@ corkcoco.ie.