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. 10

QUESTION: Councillor W. Lavelle

To ask the Manager to provide a detailed report on the activities of the council's Operations Crew and the council's efforts to improve the cleanliness of our parks?

REPLY:

South Dublin County Council Operations Section is made up of 45 Number Gen Operatives (broken into 10 separate crews), 2 Foreman of works, 1 Admin Site Officer & an Area Engineer.

One of the major duties of the section is to carry out litter picking & removal of flytipped waste in the public realm. Locations are assigned following requests from a number of sources including customer care system, fixyourstreet.ie, other departments (Parks, Community, Roads etc.). There are also a number of reoccurring black spots which are monitored & maintained as required.

Since the origin of the section in April 2011 trends have appeared. These would suggest a high proportion of the wind blown litter & flytipped materials collected, & are concentrated, in the green open spaces & parks. Locations such as St. Cuthberth's Park, Kilinarden Park & Quarryvale Park receiving a number of visits a week. Areas in close proximity to litter generators such as convenience shops & schools are also targeted weekly.

A monthly breakdown of tonnages collected by the operations crews are as follows:

 This averages out at:

 93 tonnes per month

0.67 tonnes per crew per day

In addition to the activities of the operations crew, staff from the Parks & Landscape Services Department are also engaged, on an ongoing basis in picking and removing litter and refuse from public parks and open spaces around the county and, to date, 750.5 tonnes of waste have been collected.