This article is from page 36 of the 2008-09-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 36 JPG
that dumping has escalated to a completely unacceptable level.
“The current warden is doing a
fine job but it’s a big area to cover,
spreading from Westbury all the way into Clare. He can’t be working twenty four hours a day, seven days a week,” the Labour councillor said.
Cllr Fitzgerald, who runs a food business 1n the Westbury Centre, says there has been a marked increase in illegal dumping in recent months.
“T come in in the morning and my bin has bags of other people’s rub- bish in it. Householders in the area ring me angry that they put out their bins for collection and overnight, other people come along and fill the
bins up. At every bottle bank, you see cardboard boxes dumped and drive out to Broadford and there’s rubbish just dumped at the side of the road.”
The councillor believes that people are dumping at night and at week- ends, knowing that the litter warden can’t work every weekend.
“IT saw a pick-up truck drive past me last Sunday loaded down with bags of rubbish. That was at 2pm on a Sunday. The truck drove towards Clare and I saw it coming back at
3.30pm empty. Now where did those bags of rubbish end up? There was no official landfill or recycling place open on Sunday.”
Cllr Fitzgerald said he is also ask- ing the director of services to tell him how many fines and court pros- ecutions there have been for littering in the east Clare area.
‘People are dumping because they know they won’t be caught or penal- ised. We need more than one person to enforce this legislation. It’s getting out of hand.”