Bottle banks being used as illegal dumping sites

Management at Galway City Council have come under fire for failing to adequately respond to the scourge of illegal dumping.

Councillor Ollie Crowe said officials at City Hall were “removed from the reality of what’s happening on the ground”.

“They’ve got their heads in the sand in relation to illegal dumping, which has gotten worse. There needs to be a joined-up, coordinated response to this problem, not an ad-hoc piecemeal reaction,” he said.

Cllr Crowe said that littering at bottle banks at this time of year was a particular problem that management at City Hall was not dealing with. He said in some cases baths, boilers, mattresses and other large items were being dumped illegally by members of the public at the city’s bottle banks.

The Fianna Fáil public representative outlined a three-pronged approach that management could implement relatively quickly if it was serious about cleaning up its act in relation to illegal dumping.

“Firstly, we need more community wardens. We have only eight at the moment and we need to at least increase that by 50% to 12 or maybe 13.

“Secondly, we need CCTV cameras at bottle banks that is recording and not just a live feed. CCTV that is recording will act as more of a deterrent. Thirdly, we need to have a PA system at these bottle banks, like they have on the Prom and in Ballyloughane. When a car pulls up to the bottle banks, it will be announced over a PA system that it is illegal to dump at this site and it warns the public that they will be prosecuted. People will think twice about it,” he said.

Cllr Crowe said the ordinary staff members of the City Council working on the ground were overloaded with work, and yet they were being blamed for negative comments about litter, including in the latest IBAL report. He reiterated that management, and not staff on the ground, were to blame for not implementing a co-ordinated approach.