This article is from page 28 of the 2007-07-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 28 JPG
CALLS have been made to name and shame people who abuse recycling facilities by leaving their empty bags and boxes or just dumping the cans and bottles in front of the bins.
Clir Pascal Fitzgerald made the call ata meeting of the Killaloe area com- mittee of the council.
He told how staff at the council’s new offices in Westbury are “obliged to go out and clean up after people who leave a mess at the recycling fa- cility – it’s not our job. We have CCTV cameras so why is it that we are not
catching people dumping?”
The Labour councillor told officials and fellow councillors that some peo- ple who arrive at the bottle bank “are so lazy that they just dump boxes full of bottles at the foot of the bins – they don’t even put them in the recycling bins. We need to prosecute people who are doing this and expose their names in the media”.
Cio OM Coe Domne Ne One han said that there have been 19 pros- ecutions on foot of such behaviour.
“But people can be very creative about how they park their cars so that we can’t identify them,” he said.
He added that the council’s litter warden is “very active’ in pursuit of offenders “but he has to have some- thing to go on – acar reg or a name”.
He added that the problem is not one which only applied to east Clare but consideration had been given to putting a refuse bin at the re-cycling Station in the new Westbury Centre.
“That was discounted because where ever we put in refuse bins they are abused by people dumping their household rubbish.”
Cllr Tony O’Brien said that the “real problem is the mentality of people who do that. What we have to do is
ring the warden when we see this hap- pening – take car registration numbers so the offenders can be tracked down – it doesn’t matter if its your neighbour. It’s the only way we’ll stop this and find out who is doing this so we can prosecute them.”
OOo) (oe y Cn det lam some Ker AWE Bho that there would be a pub opening for business in the centre shortly and asked whether a barrier might be erected to keep people out of the cen- tre at night after pub hours.
He was told this wouldn’t be possible as the centre is not in council owner- ship or control.