Houses need proof of waste disposal

HOUSEHOLDERS who don’t use a commercial bin company will soon be contacted by Sligo County Council and asked to account for how they are disposing their waste.

It’s part of a Council initiative to crack down on illegal dumping around the County, which cost the Council almost ¤1 million last year.

All Waste collectors are submitting a table of their entire customer Eircodes to the Council this month.

This list will then be cross referenced with the public Eircode database in order to filter out Eircodes (households) which are not using a Waste collector.

If people ignore the letter, inspections, issuing of ¤75 on-the-spot fines and the serving of statutory notices will be considered.

By law households must either register with a bin company or use a Civic Amenity site such as Greenstar at the Quays, keeping receipts as proof.

The extent of illegal dumping and cost to Sligo taxpayers was outlined by Director of Services Tom Kilfeather.

Sligo County Council removed 20 tonnes of rubbish from Tullycusheen bog outside Tubbercurry last July and within 48 hours there was fresh dumping on the site.

Cathaoirleach of Ballymote-Tubbercurry Municipal Council Councillor Jerry Lundy said it was “a disgrace”: “Shame on them”.

The Council spent ¤925,000 on waste and road cleaning in 2016, ¤150,000 more than in 2015.

Tullycusheen is among several illegal dumping hotspots in the county, including O’Boyle Park in Forthill, St Joseph’s on MCR, Holy Well Road and Clooncoose bog, Ballymote.

A “very conservative” estimate of the cost borne by the Council of cleaning up illegal dumping and fly tipping around Sligo town for 2017 would “probably be in excess of ¤30,000.”