Council demands crackdown after 580 bags of rubbish dumped on Cork-Limerick road

Over 580 bags of roadside rubbish prompt Cork councillors to call for CCTV, dashcam evidence, and school campaigns

Council engineers said littering was rampant throughout the county and maintained there was even more of it happening on minor roads. File picture

The extent of illegal dumping on the side of a main road in Co Cork has been described as “astonishing”, after county council engineers revealed what contractors picked up.

They filled 580 big black bags with litter and also uncovered dumped mattresses, discarded old tyres and a number of old traffic cones during a recent week-long clean-up.

It worked out as 23 full bags for each kilometre of the main Cork-Limerick road (N20) between Grenagh and the Ballybeg Bends near Buttevant.

Litter picking goes on constantly on the side of main roads, but the level of what turned up shocked councillors, who say the local authority is paying a fortune to clean up after offenders.

It has led them to ask senior officials what they can do to counteract this, such as installing covert CCTV cameras and asking the public to provide dashcam footage of the culprits.

They are even calling on the minister for education Helen McEntee to provide them with funding to carry out pilot anti-littering projects at schools in the area.

The details prompted several councillors to mention how much rubbish Tidy Towns groups are clearing on a daily basis.

Fianna Fáil councillor Ian Doyle said volunteers in Newtownshandrum collected bags of roadside litter, and “within minutes of finishing" found more fast-food cartons were dumped there. 

They also discovered 40 discarded old paint tins dumped.

He added Tidy Towns groups “are pulling out mattresses out of ditches all the time".

Fine Gael councillor Sinéad Sheppard said volunteers recently picked up 22 bags of rubbish at a small area in Cobh known as ‘The Top of the Hill’. Fine Gael councillor Tony O’Shea described the level of illegal dumping as “absolutely crazy”, adding something must be done to bring it to an end.

“It simply beggars belief. I’m sure if a litter pick was done again on this road [N20] in a couple of months’ time we would have the same [amount] again,” he added.

Council engineers said littering was rampant throughout the county and maintained there was even more of it happening on minor roads.

Labour councillor Ronan Sheehan said there were no proper repercussions for the culprits, and this had to be addressed because he sees people “throwing stuff on the ground all the time".

Fianna Fáil councillor Pat Hayes, who is chairman of the municipal council which governs the area where the 580 bags were picked up, suggested a number of actions.

He won unanimous cross-party support to request senior council officials to deploy covert CCTV in blackspot areas.

“We will also write to the minister for education seeking a pilot anti-litter campaign in local schools. We will have to start from the bottom up. The amount of rubbish been thrown from lorries and cars is unbelievable,” he said.

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Both he and Fine Gael councillor Aileen Browne also suggested the council set up a system whereby motorists with dashcam footage of offending vehicles can send it to the council’s litter wardens.