Council making mess with refuse move

THE news that Cork City Council has agreed to sell its refuse collection to Country Clean, highlights the failings of the public service when compared to private enterprise.

The figures supplied in your article suggest that during 2010, there were 15,000 customers paying on average €310 a year to the Council.

Those entitled to the waiver still had to pay €6 twice a month and there were 12,000 of those. So, the city council would still have taken in about €6.5 million to run the business.

If you add to that the losses they have made on that figure and the provision of new bins this year (under EU law), it suggests that the cost of running the service is nearer to €10 million a year. Oh, and none of the 120 staff employed in the service will lose their jobs so there will be no saving on that score.

But a small private company with 90 employees, based in Mallow, which covers the whole of Munster, providing a variety of other services also, can afford to “buy” this loss-making refuse collection business from our City Council, charge less to it’s customers and still plan to make a profit.

The comments of the city manager point to the falling customer numbers and the need to provide the additional bins as the reasons the council can’t even break even on the service.

But those falling numbers are the customers who discovered that they could get their refuse collected cheaper by private companies such as Greenstar who also provide the required EU biodegradable now as part of their reduced charges.

Surely the bigger scandal is that the city council is walking away from its responsibility to the poorer people whose income is so low, that they qualify for the waiver in the first place. On two counts, therefore, where is the accountability for the use of these public funds?

John Mallon

Mayfield

Cork