COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF ENVIRONMENT SPC

Monday, February 06, 2012

HEADED ITEM NO.4

HEADED ITEM: G. Lee

4. No Junk Mail Report

REPLY:

 

“No Junk Mail” SPC report

 

Following a discussion regarding the distribution of the leaflets ’Bulbs not Bonfires’ and ‘How to prepare for Bad Weather’, it was agreed to present a report to the SPC regarding the non- delivery of leaflets to house holds that have “no Junk Mail” signs on post boxes. It was also requested that this item be placed on the Council agenda.

Definition of Junk Mail:

The definition of junk mail is ambiguous, it can be describes as “unsolicited advertising or promotional material received through the mail and e-mail”  or “untargeted mail advertising goods or services / third-class mail consisting of advertising and often addressed to `resident' or `occupant' “ 

Research included a review of legislation by the Law Department who found that there is currently no legislation governing “No Junk Mail” signs on householder’s letter boxes. In addition the solicitor’s office in An Post, Consumers Association of Ireland, and the Minister’s office are equally unaware of any such legislation.

Direct Marketing:

“Postal marketing is the traditional and oldest form of direct marketing. For mail received through a letter box to be considered to be direct marketing it must be addressed to a named person and must be promoting a product or service. Unaddressed mail put into your letter box or mail addressed to ,"the occupant", "the resident" or "the householder" does not necessarily involve the use of personal data and consequently data protection legislation does not apply.

If a citizen does not want to receive direct marketing, they have a right to notify the sender that they object to receiving such material. It is against the law (Section 2 of the Data Protection Acts) for an organisation not to respect a written request from an individual. If you continue to receive marketing after you have objected you can Make a Complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner.

There is an obligation on an organisation that has not obtained an individual’s details directly from them to inform them of the original source of their details. This will enable them to contact the original organisation and object to it using or distributing details for marketing purposes.” (http://bit.ly/wVEBeg )

Non delivery of Council material:

There are some reasons for non delivery of material other than that due to ‘No Junk Mail’ signs and they include:

• Apartments - legally distributors are not permitted to cross the boundary into apartment buildings.
• Locked premises - some estates are locked and key codes are required to gain access.
• Locked gates - some gates are locked there is no access to letterbox.
• Stand alone houses are not covered - stand alone homes between towns or areas are not covered.
• Refusals - the leaflet is refused.
• Large dogs - danger from guard dog.
• Anti-social behaviour or dangerous areas - streets can be left if this is encountered.

The practice of distributing companies in delivering mail is not to distribute to houses with 'no junk mail' signs unless otherwise requested by the clients to do it. Under normal circumstnaces, hand deliveries are effected in bundles/groups by these companies. In effecting the small number of instances where delivery to houses with "no junk mail" signs is requested, such items cannot be delivered in bundles and are therefore delivered individually As a result, the cost for such individual deliveries is substantially higher.

It is estimated by the companies involved that approximately 5 to 7% of houses have the "no junk mail" signs in place. Given the number of items issued by the Council, such individual deliveries would substanitally increase the costs associated with producing and circulating those items.While the Council continues to identify cost effective and alternative methods to deseminate information and circulate leaflets etc, it would not be cost effective to issue all items individually.

Every effort will be made to co-ordinate the issue of items across the Council and where from time to time groups of Council items can be issued together thereby keeping costs down  this will be pursued. This will not always be possible however and where individual items are to issue cost will continue to be one of the factors in assessing the appropriate method of delivery.