Cllrs seek legal advice in bid to save Galway bin collection

 Galway City councillors are to seek an independent second legal opinion before voting on a motion aimed at reversing the decision made by the City Manger to privatise the waste collection service.

 A motion proposed by Councillor Collette Connolly asking the City Council executive to withdraw their decision on the bin service has been deferred to the next ordinary meeting next month.

But City Manager Brendan McGrath reminded last night’s meeting that the bidding process to find a new contractor for the service, which has started already, would continue and run parallel to the seeking of the second legal opinion.

Councillors voted by eight votes to five to defer a motion on Section 140 of the 2001 Local Government Act when it became apparent that passing it might end up costing elected members personally if the bidding process failed and the local authority would have to continue the refuse service at a loss.

The special meeting held to discuss Cllr Connolly’s motion lasted two and a half hours and was highly charged. There was much shouting in the chamber for much of the time with a number of councillors criticising the City Manager for the way in which he made the decision and again for not sharing legal opinion he obtained last Thursday until last evening.

Earlier yesterday, the Manager called a whips’ meeting in which he informed party whips of this legal opinion, which supports his entitlement to discontinue the waste collection service as it is “an executive function”.

 Joe O’Neill, Director of Services, explained that the Council could no longer continue to operate a loss-making service as in the long-run, it would end up costing more.

Councillors were told that by seeking private bidders for the business, they could protect the waiver system for, at least, up until the end of 2014 – and Mr McGrath said he hoped to negotiate that up to the end of 2015 with the successful bidder.

Councillors were reminded again that the service had lost over half its customer base in recent years – from 22,500 to 10,000 – and that the Council couldn’t compete in what was a very competitive market

It was finally agreed that councillors would ‘park’ the Section 140 motion seeking a reversal of the Manager’s decision and wait for an independent second legal opinion on behalf of the elected members so they could make an informed decision.

Mr McGrath said he would circulate that second legal opinion as soon as he got it and that the matter would be the first thing on the agenda of the next meeting on October 14.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel