Landfill plan may force family from home

A FAMILY who claim they are being forced from their home because of plans to extend a landfill say they were never told about works commencing on the site in the next few weeks.

Retired nurse Catherine O’Brien, whose husband’s family has been living on land there for three generations, said Limerick County Council plans to force residents in Gortadroma from their homes. “We haven’t heard anything from the council and we just can’t relax. We are living in fear of having a dump on our doorstep,” Mrs O’Brien said.

An unoccupied neighbouring farm is being earmarked by the council for the landfill.

Three months ago, Mrs O’Brien and her husband Pat, 74, were notified by the council of its plans to inspect part of their family farm for the landfill extension.

They are among eight families who could be forced to leave their homes. “The whole process is causing us much distress,” Mrs O’Brien said. “It’s constantly on our minds. Without our permission, consultants have been walking our land.

We don’t want to move,” Mrs O’Brien said. “We want to live out our retirement here and we could do without this hassle.”

Tom Tarpey, a senior engineer with Limerick Co Council said: “Once we complete the ground investigations, the whole process should move along quite quickly to the planning process.”

He was optimistic the landfill expansion would be completed within a three-year timeframe.

“The county council told the local action group there would be no further developments until the autumn,” Mrs O’Brien said.

With the council planning to triple the size of the existing dump, the proposed 300-acre expansion would take up half of the O’Brien’s 76-acre small dairy holding.

Non-waste reusable waste from Limerick and surrounding counties is dumped at the Gortadroma site, which is nearing capacity.

“We haven’t met representatives of the action group for about two months but we are due to meet shortly to outline the council’s progress,” Mr Tarpey said.