Councillors approve new waste bye-laws
THE elected members of Wicklow County Council have approved new bye-laws for the segregation, storage and presentation of household waste.
The new bye-laws were drawn up to meet EU and national waste targets and because the existing bye-laws were out of date.
Senior Engineer Mark Devereux provided Councillors with an update of the new byelaws at December’s meeting of Wicklow County Council. The draft bye-laws were placed on public display from September to November of this year and were also advertised in the Wicklow People. Only one submission was received.
‘The submission was from a waste operator from west and south Wicklow who had concerns that people are putting waste into somebody else’s bin. This is already covered in the bye-laws and the local authority can prosecute someone for putting waste into another person’s bin,’ explained Mr Devereux.
Cllr Joe Behan had no issue with the new bye-laws but drew attention to the manner in which some waste operators leave domestic bins they have just emptied.
‘They are often just thrown back into the middle of the road and present a nuisance to motorists. Householders have to present the bins properly. The collectors should put the bins back where they got them,’ said Cllr Behan. ‘There was also a massive skip landed on a public road recently so material from elsewhere could be dumped into it. I presume it was too large to place on-site but I thought there was a permit system regarding skips’.
Mr Devereux replied that he would raise the issue of not properly putting bins back in place with waste collector permit holders. He also confirmed that placing a skip on a public road requires a permit issued by the Roads Section of Wicklow County Council.
‘There is a fee up-front, for example if the skip is taking up a parking place’.
Cllr Mary Kavanagh remarked about an apartment block in Wicklow town which is causing problems for pedestrians during bin collection times. ‘The problem with this apartment block is that the bins are left on a very narrow footpath. There is a woman living nearby on a disability scooter who has to constantly ask neighbours to move the bins. The bins are causing a mobility access problem and problems for people pushing prams or buggies’. Mr Devereux said he would see if the problem could be addressed as a roads matter since it involved blocking a public footpath.