COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, October 13, 2008

QUESTION NO. 12

QUESTION: Councillor C. King

To ask the Manager is there a strategy in place to reduce the costs of the post Halloween festivities 'clean-ups' and is there any evidence that the roll out of the annual junk collections prior to Halloween has a positive impact on the overall workload of the clean-up crews post Halloween?

REPLY:

Each year and internal Inter-departmental group is assembled to prepare for and hallowe'en and co-ordinate the remediation requirements afterwards.

In prearartion for the event, the Parks and Housing Departments with the assistance of staff from the Cleansing Unit will be removing any bonfire material from open spaces in the weeks before Halloween as they do each year. Last year the Council dealt with 583 bonfires. This was down from 612 in 2006. In addition to the costs incurred by the Council there are also costs associated with the Gardaí and emergency services.  Bonfires also contribute to atmospheric pollution and damage to the open spaces. Therefore, the aim of the Council is to discourage the number of bonfires in the County.

The Environmental Services Department target certain bonfire prone areas of the County with junk collections in the weeks prior to Halloween in an effort to ensure that people do not leave out material for the collection that is then used in a bonfire. The Litter Wardens are also involved, targeting commercial premises who supply waste material for bonfires (tyres, pallets etc).

In recent years the Council has organised official County Council bonfires which have also been of assistance and proved to be very well received in the locations (West Tallaght and North Clondalkin) where they have been held. These events have focused community efforts on reducing the number of bonfires on an open space in favour of one larger bonfire that would be supervised and managed to ensure that unsuitable material is excluded and that health and safety measures are in place to ensure public safety.

The reduction in the number of bonfires dealt with as well as the quantity of material yielded in the junk collections (approx. 750 tonnes to end August in 2008) provide indicators of the impact of the various measures outlined.