Householders will face prison rather than pay refuse charges

HOUSEHOLDERS in Waterford have warned they will go to jail rather than pay new refuse charges.

A major protest is planned outside Waterford County Council’s administrative headquarters in Dungarvan in advance of next Monday’s meeting of the local authority.

Protesters are fighting a €150 annual charge for refuse collection controversially introduced last month by county manager Ray O’Dwyer.

Hundreds of householders opposed to the charge are expected to take part in a peaceful protest.

“This is one that will not go away, for many of us it is a fight to the finish,” Householders Against Refuse Charges spokesperson Eddie Walsh said.

February 28 has been set as the deadline for payment of the new charge.

On local radio yesterday dozens of residents, including an 85-year-old widow, pledged to go to prison rather than pay the charge.

Eddie Walsh warned: “There won’t be enough prison cells to hold all the people of Co Waterford who are set to make a stand.”

The charge has been introduced over the heads of all 23 elected county councillors by Mr O’Dwyer, who is legally entitled to do so under legislation introduced more than two years ago by then Minister for the Environment Martin Cullen.

Mr O’Dwyer told the councillors that the new charge was financially unavoidable.

“Part of the €150,” he said, “will be spent on meeting the massive transportation costs now involved in sending the county’s waste to neighbouring Carlow following the closure of the council’s own landfills at Tramore and Dungarvan.”

More than 100 people turned out to protest in Tramore, Co Waterford on Monday night against refuse service charges which have spiralled from 25p per bin lift in the 1990s to €13 per lift today.

Householders Against Refuse Charges members made their way into the council chamber, forcing the suspension of business for the night.

Mr Walsh said: “I called a meeting two weeks ago to test the mood for a protest like this. Over 100 turned out. I have always believed and still believe today and am being believed more and more that service charges are an unfair double tax.”

The two landfills in Waterford are now closed and waste has to be transported to Carlow at an estimated cost of around €800,000 per annum.

* Householders Against Refuse Charges plan further protests and meetings and can be contacted on [phone].