Call for bye-laws to prevent early morning bin collections

Bin men up at the crack of dawn are driving residents in city estates cracked!

Morning bin collections are waking up city residents too early and late night collections are disturbing young children and those who go to bed early, it was claimed yesterday.

Labour Party City Councillor, Niall McNelis, said bye-laws or guidelines need to be introduced to regulate the times of when bin companies can collect in Galway City.

He claimed bin trucks are visiting estates as early as 6am, and as late as 11.30pm, which is generating unease among sleepers.

“A compromise is needed,” said Cllr McNelis.

“I’ve had a large number of calls about bin collections going into estates very early in the morning and also late at night.  Some estates have up to five trucks coming in one after another. You have three private bin companies, and two of them send in two different trucks to collect the different coloured bins. It really can be a noise nuisance, especially for night workers coming off late shifts who are trying to sleep and for children, 6am is too early and 11.30pm is too late,” he said.

Cllr McNelis has discussed the issue with City Councillor Terry O’Flaherty, chair of the Environment SPC, and she has agreed to put it on the agenda of the next meeting.

“We need bye-laws to regulate this. I acknowledge that competition has resulted in better prices for bin collection but it is to the detriment of the service. Collections need to be carried out at reasonable times of the day, not too early or too late which is impacting on residents’ ability to sleep,” he said.

Cllr McNelis, a businessman, says that the reverse is true for city centre businesses, and he wants collections for commercial premises to be carried out later in the evening, rather than early morning.

“Most shops in the city centre are open from 8am or 9am to 6pm or 7pm. But the collections are carried out early in the morning when businesses are closed. For a trial period, the bin collections for businesses should take place in the evenings, maybe from 7pm to 10pm, so that businesses can put their rubbish out when they are closing. The estates should be done earlier and the businesses should be later,” he said.

Cllr McNelis claims that some city centre residents – particular large apartment blocks – may be dodging bin charges. “There is some evidence to suggest that street litter bins are being used by residents to dispose of their domestic waste. Now I know the litter warden is doing his best to tackle this but it is an ongoing issue that needs to be addressed,” he said.