COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, November 08, 2010

QUESTION NO. 17

QUESTION: Councillor W. Lavelle

To ask the Manager to provide a preliminary report on Halloween 2010 including the number of bonfires detected on open spaces in the charge of the council and the number of residents and community groups who registered for the 'Bulbs not Bonfires' initiative?

REPLY:

Information is being compiled at this stage regarding the number of bonfires occuring in the County. 125 queries have been received to date, this includes requests for the removal of material and  infomation on the Bulbs not Bonfires scheme. A link to the Bulbs not Bonfires webpage is available on the Council's website www.sdcc.ie and community groups can apply for the scheme online, todate over 20 groups have enquired about the scheme. The location, size and cost of each bonfire will be recorded and mapped following Halloween, this will provide a very precise picture of the number of bonfires and the damage caused as a result.

At this stage however there are a number of updates under the Halloween Bulbs not Bonfires Programme:-

A series of advance planning meetings involving the Environment, Parks and Housing Departments in conjunction with the Gardai took place

The normal practice of identifying and removing illegally dumped material, likely bound for halloween bonfires, were removed by staff in the run-up to halloween

The CCRI WEEE Collectons took place throughout the county though some WEEE was still seized during the Sunday clear-out

On the Halloween Sunday squads of Parks and Cleansing Staff seized materials from areas where reports were received and where the Gardai and the squads could find materials

The "Spooky Walk" in Corkagh Park attracted considerable attendance

The free access to Ballymount yielded 163 tonn of waste compared with the average Saturday tonnage of 66

Two organised Bonfires took place - North Clondalkin at Letts field and West Tallaght at Butler McKee Park

From preliminary reports it appears that there were less bonfires and that more spaces were kept bonfire free.  There was a substantial amount of co-operation from local communities in protecting their green spaces as part of the intiative and a full report will be made available when all data has been collated.