‘Shocking’ increase in illegal dumping

THE amount of illegal dumping in Sligo has increased during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Director of Services, Tom Kilfeather, told the meeting that it has become ‘quite shocking’ and that it is taking place across the county.

Mr Kilfeather made the comments in an update on the council’s work during the crisis.

Later, responding to a motion from Cllr Donal Gilroy seeking to unearth how many prosecutions there were in 2019 for illegal dumping and illegal roadside posters, Mr Kilfeather said there were seven prosecutions before the District Court for dumping in 2019.

Seventy four on-the-spot fines were issued last year, 23 were done so on-foot of CCTV footage.

For roadside posters, over 30 fines were issued in 2019.

Separately, a motion from councillors Thomas Walsh and Gerard Mullaney called on the council to introduce an initiative to tackle illegal dumping.

Cllr Walsh said there needed to be a greater emphasis on the issue going forward, while Cllr Mullaney said that the increase in dumping recently was shocking.

Contributing to the discussion, Cllr Martin Connolly said he has been made aware of clothes banks overflowing with clothes of late, as they are not being emptied often enough.

Mr Kilfeather responded to Cllr Connolly by saying that a reason for that could be the collapse in the market for clothes during the pandemic, and therefore collection from the banks is not taking place as usual as it may have previously.

On the issue of introducing a campaign to tackle illegal dumping, Mr Kilfeather said a number of ideas were in the pipeline, including mattress collection and a Bikes for Africa initiative.