Gardaí and wardens team up to nab litter offenders

Galway Gardaí and community wardens are teaming-up to target litter louts who blight the county’s rural landscape with illegal dumping.

This week’s Joint Policing Committee (JPC) heard how Galway County Council’s community wardens carried out some 1,700 inspections last year for illegal dumping.

Michael Owens, Director of Services, who gave the figures, said some 264 litter fines were issued by community wardens last year.

A further 25 written warnings were issued for litter offences of a lesser nature, while there were 10 court prosecutions for illegal dumping.  Four fines were paid after court summons were issued.

He said there were 19 community wardens in the Council, and they dedicated about 50% of their time to the problem of illegal dumping.

This equated to 5,834 man-hours – as well as carrying out 1,700 inspections, they inspected a total of 4,500 bags of rubbish illegally dumped.

There were some 250 ‘clean-ups’ instigated by the Council in 2016 and the local authority partnered with around 100 community organisations for the ‘Spring Clean’ initiatives.

A further 1,693 bags of rubbish were collected during that initiative last Spring.

Mr Owens outlined to the meeting how CCTV installed at bottle banks in the county recorded some 122 instances of illegal dumping.

A total of 11 fines were issued for these offences.

He told members that the Environment Section of Galway County Council will give updates of their activities in relation to illegal dumping at each meeting of the JPC.

Councillor Michael ‘Moggie’ Maher (FG), chairperson of the sub-committee of the JPC tasked with dealing with illegal dumping, outlined how Gardaí and community wardens are teaming up to crackdown on litter louts.

They will be conducting joint operations to target illegal dumpers. Councillor Mary Hoade (FF) said CCTV cameras in Ahascragh helped the Council secure a conviction, fine and three-month prison sentence in Ballinasloe District Court in December for an incident of illegal dumping.

The JPC passed a motion calling on central Government to provide funds for more CCTV cameras to be rolled-out in litter blackspots.