800 city homes a year have bin service cut off for non-payment

Date Published: 16-Sep-2010

BY ENDA CUNNINGHAM

Around 800 households have their waste collection service cut off by Galway City Council each year for non-payment of charges, the local authority has revealed.

And there are fears that hundreds more low-income homes in the city face being cut off if the Council decides to abandon its costly waiver scheme at the end of the year, as the local authority faces one of its toughest budgets yet.

While a renewed proposal has not yet been put forward by Council officials on abandoning the waiver, it is expected to form part of recommendations when the 2011 local authority budget is discussed in November.

A spokesperson for the City Council told the Galway City Tribune: “Around 800 households are being disconnected from the refuse collection service each year for non-payment.”

While some homes may have their service reinstated by paying their arrears, others switched to the private operator, City Bin.

At the moment, the Council is owed an aggregate of €1,297,541 for refuse collection in the city.

Late last year, the then City Manager Joe MacGrath warned councillors as they faced balancing their 2010 budget that the city was in an “extremely challenging” financial situation, and that a full waste waiver could not be sustained in the future.

In fact, he warned councillors that he would be forced to sign an executive order abandoning the scheme unless they could come up with a viable alternative.

It was eventually agreed to ‘cap’ the waiver on the first €250, with qualifying households – such as pensioners and those on social welfare assistance – paying by weight for anything over €250.

It is estimated the subsidy scheme cost the Council a total of around €3m for the three years from 2007 to 2009.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.