Keen competition from private bin firms could force council to wall

KEEN competition from private bin collectors could force Tralee Town Council out of business.

Today is D-Day for the cash-strapped council, which may be dissolved if it fails to adopt a budget for 2004 at a meeting tonight. A third of its 6,500 customers have switched to private waste operators and the council could lose €400,000 if it continues the service this year.

It is faced with the dilemma of handing over bin collection to the undercutting private operators, or finding money through cuts in other services it provides.

Investment in struggling tourism projects now costing more than €600,000 a year to service has added greatly to the council's financial woes.

The Jeanie Johnston famine ship is costing the council €235,000 in bank repayments.

The Kerry County Museum/Geraldine Experience is costing €306,500.

The steam train is costing €63,000.

Already, the council has failed to find a solution at three meetings and if agreement can't be reached by tonight's deadline, a commissioner may be appointed by Environment Minister Martin Cullen to take over its functions. The minister has flatly turned down a request for more money, saying that all councils must live within their budgets.

Tralee Mayor Terry O'Brien, Labour, is proposing that the council suspend its bin collection service for the remainder of the year and pay private collectors €80,000 to collect from elderly and unemployed people, who qualify for the council's waiver scheme.

"A suspension would give us time to sit back and assess what went wrong and how private operators could undercut us," he said.

Mr O'Brien said the council could "come back with our sleeves up" and take on the private operators, next year, with a more competitive package, including recycling, bottle banks and other services.

However, Cllr Risteard Ó Foráin, SF, feared they might not be able to get back into the market. At present, the council is proposing an annual waste charge of €340 per household, but private operators are charging up to €70 less.

Cllr Risteard Pierse, FF, said they should consider staff redundancies to help pay the additional €550,000 due under benchmarking and the Sustaining Progress agreement. However, this was completely ruled out by other councillors and town clerk John Breen said staff would be redeployed if the council exited from waste collection.

Cllr Johnny Wall, FF, suggested banks should be asked to restructure loan payments for tourist attractions, while Cllr Tommy Foley, Ind, felt the museum should be closed for part of the year to defray costs.

Mr Breen said very little could be done in regard to financial commitments on tourism projects. "We must make our repayments," he stressed.

A proposal by Cllr Wall to sell off some of the council's assets was strongly rejected by town manager Willie Wixted, who said that was not an option.

"I'm not aware of what there is to dispose of," Mr Wixted pointed out.

"If you dispose of a capital asset, you're expected to use the money for capital purposes. There's no question of using capital monies for day-to-day spending."