Cork council seek introduction of bylaws to prevent misuse of skip bags

Cork county councillors are seeking the introduction of new bylaws to prevent rogue householders putting food and other household waste in skip-type bags and leaving it to rot on green spaces in estates.

A mini epidemic of this has broken out in North Cork, according to a number of councillors.

The issue was raised at a meeting of the Fermoy Municipal district council by councillor William O’Leary who said he had received complaints about this happening in one particular housing estate in the area.

Mr O’Leary said the issue has become a health and safety risk.

He said that while some people were genuine and using the skip bags during renovations, others were simply dumping waste in them and not bothering to pay to have them collected.

Councillor Noel McCarthy said if those who provide the bags included the collection charge at the time they were acquired it would prevent the problem.

“Some people simply aren’t paying for them to be collected and they are throwing stuff into it over a period of time. As chairman of Fermoy Tidy Towns I can tell you we hear this is an ongoing problem,” said Mr McCarthy.

Mitchelstown-based councillor Kay Dawson said it was becoming an issue all over the municipal district area.

“There’s mixed rubbish in it and some can be a health hazard,” she said saying that the Lions Club in Mitchelstown Club had paid for removal of “rogue” skip bags for the sake of people living in estates.

Chairman of the municipal district council, councillor Frank O’Flynn, asked officials if there was any bylaw to address the issue.

Brendan O’Gorman, the council’s senior executive engineer for the area, told him there wasn’t and that he would like to see that loophole closed.

Mr O’Flynn said the municipal district would write to the council’s environmental special purposes committee (SPC) as a matter of urgency asking its members to draw up a bylaw.

The council issued a report on the case of one particular estate with the problem which had been visited by its waste enforcement team.

The report said they provided “compliance advice” to households using skip bags in this manner. Instructions have issued to remove the bags and provide evidence of authorised disposal.

They advised anybody with similar problems to contact the council’s anti-litter unit at 021 4285417 (9am-5pm Monday-Friday).