Offaly St Being Targeted
Thursday, 29 July 2010
OFFALY St is being targeted by stingy householders who refuse to pay bin charges.
Carriers bags of rubbish are being dumped indiscriminately in the street despite the best efforts of litter wardens to apprehend the culprits.
Temporary CCTV cameras have been erected in the town centre to catch people dumping rubbish, explained Cllr Tommy McKeigue, chairman of Tullamore Tidy Towns committee.
Rubbish dumped on Offaly St was cleared last week by Town Council workers after local business people alerted Cllr McKeigue to the problem.
Brendan Treacy of Silver River Interiors, a business located on Offaly St, said he has been removing carrier bags of rubbish over the past few weeks from the area.
'However, I drew the line when I saw used nappies in some of the bags,' said Mr Treacy.
He added that the dumping was creating a bad image of Tullamore internationally as the street was used by the increasing numbers of tourists visiting the DEW Heritage Centre on nearby Bury Quay.
Cllr McKeigue said the problem was occurring all over town. 'It's very mean to dump waste outside the homes and businesses of other people,' he stressed.
The public representative said bags of rubbish were also being dumped near the bottle banks in Kilbride St and the Daingean Road car park and the council was now in the process of erecting temporary cameras to catch the offenders.
Added Cllr McKeigue: 'I myself saw one person coming out of a town centre flat and just leaving a bag of rubbish beside a council litter bin.'
Cllr McKeigue stressed that the council would have to work in tandem with the gardai to nip the problem in the bud.
He added that Offaly St was more than just a litter problem area and said the only long term way the street could be rejuvenated was to see the major shopping centre development go ahead at the old Texas site.
'However, that project now seems to be on ice,' outlined the veteran councillor.
Recently the Tribune reported that garda CCTV footage along with footage from other cameras mounted outside of business premises is helping litter wardens Alan Murphy and Rosario Spollen of the council clamp down on those responsible for dumping litter illegally.
In a one week period alone eight fines were sent out to various people and more are imminent while seven are currently being processed by the litter wardens.
Alan Murphy said the CCTVs spotted two people dumping six bags of household refuse on William Street.
The chairwoman of Tullamore Town Council, Cllr Molly Buckley said it was 'all our responsibility to keep the environment clean'.
A litter fine is currently €150 and the Town Council also impose a clean up cost of an extra €150.
The fine must be paid within 21 days from date of issue and failure to pay will result in prosecution in the District Court which can result in fines for each offence up to a maximum €3000 being imposed.
A recent case at Tullamore district court resulted in the defendant being fined over €4,000 for illegal dumpingtogether with clean up costs and expenses.
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