Change in waste plans ‘dismays’ council members

THE country’s biggest local authority has put, on hold, its plans to create further recycling centres.

The announcement yesterday, by a senior official of Cork County Council, was described by some elected members as “a bombshell”. The decision not to provide any proposed new centres follows a review of the council’s waste management systems.

Assistant county manager for the north Cork region Tim Lucey said the planned measure was countywide.

One of the reasons not to proceed with proposed new recycling centres — known as civic amenity sites — was the cost, he said.

Mr Lucey told councillors at a northern division meeting that he would keep them informed of the outcome of the review, being conducted over the next few months.

The announcement caused an outcry at the meeting, especially as a number of county councillors from the Fermoy and Mitchelstown areas had been promised civic amenity sites would be built in their areas.

“I’m absolutely devastated by the news. People went for (the council’s) pay-by-weight system on the understanding that these sites would be in place,” an angry Cllr Frank O’Flynn said. So we’re now saying we can’t build these sites in Fermoy and Mitchelstown. We have let the people down; we’re abandoning them. This came as an absolute bombshell to me.”

Fine Gael’s Cllr Aileen Pyne added her voice in protest. “The understanding was that there would be a civic amenity site in each electoral area. I’m utterly dismayed by this news.”

Her party colleague, Cllr Liam O’Doherty, said he was also very disappointed. “Our nearest one to Mitchelstown is in Kilmallock, Co Limerick, which is 25 miles away. We did tell the people when we took away the bring sites (smaller recycling centres) that the civic amenity sites would come on board,” Cllr O’Doherty said.

Fianna Fáil’s Cllr Kevin O’Keeffe pleaded with officials to look at a Public Private Partnership (PPP) for running the civic amenity centres.

However, Mr Lucey did not to agree with the proposal. He said the local authority’s refuse service was better than the private sector. “We are not making any further commitments pending the review. We are looking at coverage, scale and options for future provision of these sites, but cost clearly comes into play because we don’t get any Government grants,” Mr Lucey said.