This article is from page 4 of the 2007-04-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
aA so MOL comtleroMW AIIM (oo. instigate legal action against the Irish Farm Film Producers Group (IFFPG) for the organisations failure to collect more than 3,000 tonnes of farm plastic Jake eemwe-utey
Kilrush man, Jackie Whelan is to send solicitors letters to Sean Campbell of the IFFPG and Portlaoise based contractor Robert Walker demanding €1,000 per week compensation in return for their failure to remove the plastic.
Whelan was contracted to collect farm plastic from the IFFPG in 2005 and 2006. Despite collecting 600 tonnes in 2005 and close to 3,000 last year, only 300 tonnes has to date been removed to date.
Under his agreement with the IFFPG the plastic mountain was to be com- pletely removed by Robert Walker last September.
‘No one ever came to take this plastic from 2005, every last bit of it 1s still in my farm. In 2006 I was contracted by the IFFPG to collect the plastic again.
Clare County Council were helping by setting up collection points and every farmer in the county was given the chance to get rid of the backlog of plas- tic,’ said Mr Whelan.
“The IFFPG told me that all of the plastic would be taken away by last September and that has not happened. I will be sending solicitors letters to the IFFPG and to Waters telling them that I will be charging them €1,000 each a week to store that plastic from April 1.”
A spokesperson from Clare County Council confirmed yesterday that they
had paid 30 per cent of the overall fee for collecting the plastic to Robert Walker but were holding the remaining omen m tie elmsetem einem st-lemeonB ioe moved from Mr Whelan’s premises and recycled.
‘The council understands that there are issues in the onward processing of the plastic collected given the very sig- nificant volumes that were brought to the various collection points through- out the county. This is a matter for the contractor to address. The financial arrangements on the contract are such that Clare County Council will not be paying the contracted sum until such time as all plastic collected has been re- cycled,’ said a council spokesperson.
Contractor Robert Walker told