Council to reintroduce CCTV to stop illegal dumping across Cork

The system was in place at some sites up until 2019, but it was discontinued due to issues with data protection and who was allowed to view and store the footage

The new cameras will help combat littering and illegal dumping. Picture: iStock

Cork County Council is to set up fixed CCTV systems at bottle bank recycling centres to combat persistent illegal dumping which is costing a small fortune to clean up.

However, there are complications with data protection for putting in roaming CCTV units to tackle illegal dumping in known blackspot areas in rural locations, according to local authority officials.

Councillors were informed of the move at a meeting of the Fermoy municipal district council.

It came after Independent councillor William O’Leary asked that councillors seek an update from senior officials in the council’s environment directorate as to when the use of CCTV would be permitted at so-called "bring sites".

Mr O’Leary said such equipment was in place at some of these sites up until 2019, but it was discontinued due to issues with data protection and who was allowed to view and store the footage. He said he believed legislation is now in place to cover its control and roll-out again.

Mr O’Leary said that, since the system's shutdown six years ago, there had been a noticeable increase in people dumping household waste at the sites.

He welcomed their reintroduction, but said he was disappointed to learn the council is not considering using mobile CCTV units in known dumping spots in the countryside.

Video evidence

Catching the culprits is these cases is extremely hard without video evidence as they nearly always leave no documentation which could prove their involvement.

Fine Gael councillor Kay Dawson said the reintroduction of CCTV would be welcome and those littering bring sites “should be caught and punished”.

She added that council staff members are constantly having to clean up at these sites, as litter louts increasingly dump their rubbish outside recycling containers. She said this is costing the local authority a small fortune and diverting workers from other jobs they could be doing.

Some leave bags of and boxes of bottles outside the containers when they are full, instead of coming back with them when they are empty.

Independent councillor Peter O’Donoghue said he is very concerned that the council is not looking at the deployment of mobile CCTV units as there is significant illegal dumping taking place in rural woodland and forestry “because some people have no regard for our countryside”.

Council officials explained that using mobile units would be problematic under new GDPR rules, although they did not comment on the exact nature of the difficulty.

They said council bosses have set up a terms of reference oversight body which will administer the use and roll-out of CCTV and that the priority will be to have them in “fixed locations”.