COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, November 14, 2011

QUESTION NO. 5

QUESTION: Councillor J. Hannon

To ask the Manager to report on the cost to the Council as regards Halloween bonfires etc. and can a comparison with 2010 and 2009 be provided?

REPLY:

Preliminary indications at this stage estimate the number of bonfires to be similar to last year 2010 when there were 343 bonfires in the County – figures captured to date show a figure of 351 for 2011. This is a marginal increase – 2.3% on last year.

  2009 2010 2011
Illegal Bonfires 523 343 351
Overall cost €101, 525 €77,050  
       

In order to divert household material being used on bonfires, free access to all residents of the County to the Civic Amenity, Ballymount was arranged on 29th October. This was a success with 181.12 tonnes of material deposited compared to an average Saturday of 56.3 tonnes. The main waste type was bulky waste i.e. furniture and large items which could have been used in bonfires in the county.  People were admitted free of charge with bulky waste on the presentation of a leaflet which was delivered to their homes.   It was disappointing however to see a substantial number of these still used on bonfires around the county on Monday afternoon.

Clondalkin Community Recycling Initiative arranged door to door collections of WEEE Waste Electrical & Electronic – Over 80 tonnes of material was collected prior to Halloween.

Other initiatives which took place throughout the period included Bulbs not Bonfires, Hallowfest and a Spooky Walk in Corkagh Park.  There were two bonfires organised by the Council however we will now examine a number of options for reducing the bonfires in the county in 2012.  The co-operation of Community Organisations and local people contributes substantially to reducing the bonfires and it is proposed to work with these group to explore new solutions.

The clean up operation is currently taking place and the total costs are being compiled. Material left after bonfires will be removed however the damaged area will not be reinstated.  At present the work on mapping the sites is underway and there will be a year on year comparison of the sites which will be used in the development of proposals for 2012.