Call to name and shame those caught littering
Wednesday March 10 2010
COUNCILLORS from around County Wexford exchanged tales of roadside dumping horrors on Monday, against a drop in the number of litter fines being issued by the county council. But officials were not enthused by a call from Cllr. Paddy Kavanagh for a name and shame policy to apply to people caught breaking litter laws.
Cllr. Kavanagh reported that the state of the roadsides was a source of embarrassment and that illegal dumping was at an all time high. He was concerned that, even when culprits were caught, the fines were no greater than the annual cost of a wheelie bin. The council was further handicapped by the cost of taking prosecutions to court.
'People are dumping at will and there is no incentive not to dump,' he complained. 'We have been pussyfooting for long enough.'
Council manager Eddie Breen denied the charge of pussyfooting but pointed to the difficulty of obtaining evidence now that those responsible were careful not to include items that could be traced back them in their abandoned refuse. The manager put out an appeal for vigilant members of the public to take a note of the registration numbers of vehicles associated with fly tipping.
Cllr. Pat Cody reported that one particular spot at Salville near Enniscorthy was a by-word for dumping, with ten to 20 plastic bags of rubbish routinely appearing each weekend. Gorey based Cllr. John Hegarty made it clear that the problems described by his party colleague were not confined to Enniscorthy. He wondered whether council outdoor staff could be transferred to the fight against litter, though this suggestion also won no favour with officials.
Cllr. Michael Kinsella said he had recently been out and about with foreign visitors who were shocked at the extent of illegal dumping. 'No other European country would tolerate it,' he said. He joined calls for the names of those fined to be published.
One suggestion for tracking down culprits came from Cllr. George Lawlor who told how a local authority elsewhere had hired a firm which abandoned a fridge in the ditch at a well known litter blackspot. The fridge contained a camera that recorded the activities of the dumpers, leading to a series of prosecutions.
He reported that the revived tidy towns committee in Wexford had filled 108 bags of litter across the town. This prompted Cllr. Declan MacPartlin to state that their counterparts in Ferns picked up 50 bag loads along the N11 road.
The 'honeypot' approach, with the camera in the old fridge came as news to officials but Cllr. Lawlor was informed that the council has closed circuit television cameras in its armoury and that the local authority sometimes employs private investigators.
