COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE (1)

Monday, January 23, 2012

QUESTION NO. 1

QUESTION: Councillor M. Corr

That the Manager once again revisits the request by this committee to provide a rapid response to the dumping of household waste in the West Tallaght area and implements a response plan as a matter of urgency.

REPLY:

The road-sweeping contract was tendered in late 2011 with a view to appointing the contractor in February 2012 and the contract was revised to include for greater flexibility of the services as required by the Council, additional weed removal in all areas and an extension to the duration of the leaf clearance operation.

The Council utilises the services of both the Operations Unit, the Cleansing Unit based in Ballymount depot in conjunction with a private contractor who has dedicated teams that operate an extensive street-cleaning programme on main roads, local roads and estates.

It is the Council’s intention to schedule the works programme for the Operations and Cleansing Units in accordance with the regular road-sweeping schedule. Currently main roads in the West Tallaght Area are swept on a monthly basis and housing estates in the  area  are swept 4 times a year and gullies are cleaned once a year on a scheduled basis.  This works programme will ensure that areas can be cleaned in the interim periods between scheduled sweeps and indicators developed to enable an ongoing review of the level of resources and nature of the operations required. Dumping of household waste is littering and the Council  is  continuing to monitor the misuse of  litter bins which are not designed for the disposal of household waste and glass bottles.  The onus is on the householder to dispose of these materials in a responsible manner through kerbside collections and bottle banks.

As part of the Councils Litter Management Plan, there will be a number of campaigns aimed at reducing the level of littering within the county, thereby reducing the resources required to cleanup after offenders and allowing the staff to be used in other operations.