Wexford rubbish ends up in North

AN investigation is under way into how up to five lorry loads of domestic rubbish thought to have come from Wexford and other parts of the South East ended up dumped on land almost 200 miles away in the North.

Strabane District Council and Wexford County Council are trying to trace the source of more than 100 tonnes of rubbish which included CVs from students applying for jobs. They are also attempting to discover how and why it was carried 200 miles and across the border to a site which is only licensed to take rubble.

Student CVs and letters addressed to residents in Gorey, Co Wexford, were among the items found dumped on the site. Other documentation with other addresses in the South East has also been recovered.

A spokesman for the local council in Strabane said the rubbish arrived there late on Friday night, probably crossing the border through Lifford in Co Donegal.

He said it took at least three to five large articulated trucks to get it to the site, which is locked at night.

"We don't have a landfill site here in Strabane. Our landfill closed five or six years ago. All of our refuse has to go to Ballymunny, which is about 50 miles away," the spokesman said.

"The waste is domestic. It featured household waste, everything from milk cartons to CVs belonging to students who were applying for jobs. That's how we managed to trace the origin of the waste."

A landowner who has a licence to accept hardfill bricks, rocks and construction rubble is being ordered to remove the domestic waste within the next 21 days. But he claims it was left there by accident.

However, locals are wondering if this is only a small portion of waste smuggled across the border for cheap and illegal disposal. Charges at sites in the North are more than half that in the South.

The alarm was raised by a resident who lives within 100 yards of the site.

He said the smell from the site was offensive and he contacted the local authority which has launched a probe into the find.

Wexford County Council's environment department senior engineer, Eamonn Hore, said the refuse service in the county was largely carried out by the local authority, with the help of a number of private operators.

"We are one of the few councils left in any part of the country still operating a refuse service. This refuse is not ours.

"We will be talking to a number of private operators about this matter but would stress that the waste was not only from Wexford but also from other parts of the South East," he added.