This article is from page 14 of the 2008-01-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
FURIOUS members of Clare County Council told their officials that charg- ing people for recycling will result in fly-tipping and a sharp drop in the amount of recycling which goes on in the county.
At a resumed budget meeting of the local authority to set out the coun- cil’s spend and income for the com-
ing year, the proposal to raise cash by charging people who come to the council’s recycling centres met with stern opposition.
Council members were told that a “nominal” charge of €3 per car would raise an estimated €160,000 in the coming year. This would go to- wards the costs of improvements and additional services at the centres.
Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) said that
for the amount raised 1n the exercise, it would not be worth the damage to recycling practice.
He said there were other ways of freeing up money to improve facili- ties. “Nothing the director of services tells me will change my mind about these charges. We are not using best practice or methods of compacting, SO we’re paying to transport fresh air. There are savings to be made there. I
want to appeal to your better sense which says we should reward people who do the right thing and look at other means of raising funding.”
Cllr Martin Conway (FG) said he agreed “100 percent with Cllr Meaney – we are Sending out the wrong mes- sage if we start to charge”’.
Cllr Tommy Brennan (NP) said that the minister “has said publicly that his department is awash with money – the manager should ask him to send some of it down here instead of these Oi Neon
Cllr Flan Garvey (FF) said that the “way to get people to comply is to reward and encourage them, not pe- nalise them with charges”.
Cllr Pat Hayes said that the Govern- ment is already collecting for recy- cling through the Repak system and asked how much comes back from the scheme to the local authority.
Cllr Patricia McCarthy (NP) told the members that they have “been presented with a balanced budget and either we find some other way of raising this money or we don’t ap- prove the budget, in which case the council 1s disbanded.”
Director of Services, Ger Dollard said that if the council wants to con- tinue having new and improved recy- cling facilities, ““we need the funds to do it and we don’t have any extra funds to avail of so we have to intro- duce charges.”