Council struggles to get to grips with fly-tippers
People are continuing to illegally dump household waste around Mayo.
Despite the introduction of bye-laws relating to household waste, Mayo County Council is struggling to crack down on people who flout the regulations and dump their rubbish.
Patsy Winters, from the council’s Environment Section, told a meeting of the local authority’s Environment and Strategic and Climate Change Policy Committee (SPC) that there are a number of issues making it difficult for the council to tackle offenders.
Waste bye-laws came into operation in the county in 2020, which place obligations on householders and businesses in relation to waste disposal. There is a requirement to participate in a waste collection service or dispose of waste in a registered facility.
Ms Winters informed the meeting that taking enforcement action can be a difficult process.
“The main issue is people not answering the door. There can be a difficulty in establishing the identity of the resident. The registered owner may not be the occupier so even if we go onto land registry we don’t necessarily have the right person. We are often forced to leave a warning letter addressed to the resident. We don’t have a name then to issue a payment notice,” said Ms Winters.
She said GDPR has created a further headache and landlords are often reluctant to give out the name of their tenant.
Ms Winters said the legal route has proved to be expensive, time-consuming and not always effective.
“It’s extremely difficult to get something as far as court. Even if you do, I mean the last one I had in court under the bye-laws, he was also caught illegal dumping twice and got community service. That was two years of work,” she commented.
Cllr Harry Barrett said fly-tipping has become a scourge in Castlebar and other towns in the county.
Cllr John O’Malley pointed out that some people living in remote rural areas do not have access to a waste collection service.
“There are areas that there is no collection in and these people are willing to pay for one. Some of them drive from Sraheen in Aghagower all the way to Derrinumera Landfill. Now that’s a long way,” said Cllr O’Malley.
He said some people left without a collection service are “forced to take it and they go out along the road and they may dump it”.
“It’s awful hard to blame them. They don’t want to leave it around the house and they have no place to go with it. I think anybody who is granted a licence for waste bin collection should service every area,” said Cllr O’Malley.
