Paying charges for non-existent sewerage plant stinks, says town

BUSINESSES are being forced to pay water-out charges in a West Cork town that was promised a sewerage treatment plant in 1999, which isn’t likely to see it materialise until 2010.

Under recently-introduced EU legislation, business premises are levied charges for the amount of waste water they produce. These charges are supposed to be used to provide sanitary systems.

Businesses in Castletownbere are forking out money, however, while watching millions of gallons of raw sewerage spill into the harbour.

Locally-based Cllr Noel Harrington (FG) told a council meeting yesterday that the treatment plant for Castletownbere was first mooted in 1972. Funding approval from the Department of the Environment was announced in 1999, but nothing has happened since then.

Local businesspeople were concerned by the charges and the lack of progress.

“Under the North and West [Cork] Strategic Plan, the town was to have a doubling of its population by 2020, but hard to see how that’s going to be achieved when we can’t build lots of houses because we haven’t got a proper treatment plant,” Cllr Harrington said.

“The smell last summer when the harbour was being dredged was terrible.

“How can we reconcile (that with) asking people to pay this charge.”

Cllr Harrington pointed out that, according to last year’s census, Castletownbere was one of the few areas in the country with a declining population and this could be put down in part to a lack of proper infrastructure.

“One business closed last week and the water-in water-out charge was a factor. It’s like death by a thousand cuts,” Cllr Harrington said.

Cllr Paddy Sheehan (FG) said it was “disgraceful” that the project had been put on the back burner.

“Just before the last General Election [2002] we were told the sewerage scheme would be up and running in two years.

“Since then, it’s not advanced one inch. It’s only part of a litany of false promises. It’s a disgrace in this day and age that raw sewerage is going into harbour,” Cllr Paddy Sheehan said.

The council’s divisional senior executive engineer, Niall O’Mahony, said it was unfortunate that the sewerage scheme hadn’t progressed since 2002.

“Adverts were put in the newspapers last week inviting tenders from consultants to provide a preliminary report. We hope consultants will be in place by June,” Mr O’Mahony said.

“I hope a preliminary report will be completed by the end of the year. Optimistically it should proceed in either late 2009 or early 2010,” the senior executive engineer added.