COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

MOTION NO. 13

MOTION: Councillor B. Bonner

That the Manager presents a report on the street sweeping schedule in the Clondalkin Area.

REPORT:

The Council utilises the services of both the Operations Unit, the Cleansing Unit based in Ballymount Depot in conjunction with a Private Contractor, Oxigen who has dedicated teams that operate an extensive street-cleaning programme on Main Roads, Local Roads and Estates. The Council’s Cleansing Staff target central locations in Clondalkin using handcart, green machine and litter bin operatives.

Oxigen undertake road sweeping in housing estates 4 times a year and gulley cleaning once a year. The main roads are swept and litter picked every month.

The Environmental Services Department has introduced a system of scheduled cleaning that will include all areas of the County. The cleaning schedule is based on the Road Sweeping Programme which divides the county into 87 areas and 39 road routes; crews are assigned to the areas between scheduled sweeps by the Road Sweeping Contractor Oxigen. This cleaning schedule assigns a priority (1-5) to each of the areas, which reflects the frequency of cleaning required in the area.

Priority	Frequency
Priority 1	Every week
Priority 2	Every 2 weeks
Priority 3	Every 3 weeks
Priority 4	Every 4 weeks
Priority 5	Every 6 weeks.

This priority can be altered (increased/decreased) subject to reviewing the area and the quantity of works required to maintain an acceptable standard. A schedule is prepared each week identifying the areas to be cleaned. Ten number crews are staff are assigned on a daily basis to a particular area and the supervisors monitor the sites and record the weight of material removed from the area.

Fly tipping of domestic waste bags abandoned in laneways and deposited into the planting/hedging on the open spaces is a more serious problem.  Some of this waste is burnt, and requires mechanical intervention (JCB machine) in its removal. 

The Cleansing Crews continue to operate on a daily basis, collecting fly tipped waste in lanes, ditches and housing areas whilst the litterbins are collected on a regular frequency Monday – Friday. The volume of material removed by these crews is in addition to that removed by the Operations Crew, the Road Sweeping Contractor and the Private Waste Collectors who operate the kerbside collections.