€2 charge for recycling centre entry

THE county council is introducing a €2 charge for entry to its four household waste facilities at Holmestown, New Ross, Enniscorthy and Gorey.

The €2 flat charge will come into effect on June 13 and is aimed, the council says, at helping reduce the €380,000 deficit for operating the sites.

‘It would be better if we could keep them completely free, but I understand there is a cost to operating these things. So long as it remains at a very low price and doesn’t signal the start of an escalating price structure that would lead to illegal dumping I don’t have a problem with it,’ said Cllr Davy Hynes.

‘However, we do need to keep an eye on it.’

In recent years, the council said the deficit has grown due to a combination of increasing costs and reducing revenues.

On the revenue side, previous subsidies are no longer payable and the economic downturn meant that the Holmestown landfill never achieved the capacity that was envisaged when it was being planned. ‘Due to reducing commodity prices, rebates previously received on a range of recyclable materials have reduced significantly. On the cost side, we have had increasing manpower, waste servicing and food waste costs,’ the council said in a statement, adding that the charge will bring in an estimated €85,000 a year. The local authority said that within the Southern Waste Region (comprising 10 councils, of which Wexford is one), 24 of 35 sites have an entry charge and/or charge for acceptance of recyclable wastes. ‘Up to now, Wexford County Council has been the only local authority within the Southern Region which provided a food waste service free of charge,’ it said. Wexford County Council would encourage customers to visit sites less frequently and with a larger amount of waste if possible, for best value for money. ‘Those that come weekly with one bag of waste might now come monthly with a car load, maximising their return on the nominal entry charge,’ said the council.