Clean-ups and CCTV to tackle illegal dumping
A small team of council employees have been working part-time since the start of the year, cleaning up litter “hot spots” east of the city.
In just six months, the team has collected 43 tonnes of waste.
The team, which is based in Youghal, targets known areas and also act in response to complaints from the public.
Sharon Corcoran, who is in charge of the council’s Environment Directorate, said that the clean-up workers are mainly employed at the local authority’s recycling centres, but are also deployed on occasion to respond to illegal dumping.
She told a council meeting in Mallow that, because of their success, county manager Martin Riordan had decided to send more hit squads out to target littering.
In the short term, a new team will concentrate on the western suburbs of Cork.
Ms Corcoran said that the problem was not as prevalent in rural areas of North and West Cork as it was in the greater metropolitan area.
However, she said that, in the long term, it was likely that the clean-up squads would be sent into rural areas as well.
The hit squads are equipped with Geopal co-ordinators which enable them to speedily identify the exact location of illegal dumping when a complaint is made by a member of the public.
Ms Corcoran said that, over the course of the first six months of this year, the council received 719 complaints about littering from the public.
Fermoy-based Labour councillor Noel McCarthy told Ms Corcoran that litter louts “need to be named and shamed” by the council.
He said CCTV cameras should be installed in known dumping areas.
Ms Corcoran said the council had not done this to date because of an issue with the Data Commissioner.
She said this issue had now been resolved and the council would adopt the technology in an effort to prosecute more litter louts.
“It’s getting more and more difficult to prosecute because people are clever and don’t leave any identification in the rubbish they dump,” Ms Corcoran said.
“But with the cameras, we can then get their car registrations and use that for prosecutions,”
Ms Corcoran said the council is also focusing more on the illegal dumping of scrapped vehicles amid concerns that some unscrupulous people are simply dumping rusty wrecks in isolated areas.
Ms Corcoran added that the Environmental Directorate was also looking at adopting by-laws similar to ones brought in by Limerick City Council to target dog owners who do not clean up after their pets.
