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SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, February 08, 2016

QUESTION NO.19

QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor

To ask the Chief Executive, in noting the replies to recent Council questions and motions regarding the scourge of illegal posters throughout our County and the relatively poor reflection of the County as expressed in the IBAL reports, if he would confirm that it is still the policy of this Council to remove such illegal posters and advertising signs.

REPLY:

The Litter Pollution Act 1997, as amended, (the Act) was introduced to provide for the prevention and control of litter pollution, defacement of certain places and matters relating thereto.

This Act gives the Council extensive powers to deal with litter and litter offenders, and it outlines general prohibitions related to littering, obligations, offences and enforcement provisions. 

The Council enforces the provisions of Section 19 (i) of the Act specifically with regard to all illegal signage, and a total of 215 fines were issued during 2015 in respect of this section.

In the event where those responsible fail to remove signs, the Council arranges for removal.

With regard to repeat offenders, it is the policy of the Council to initiate Direct Prosecution against the alleged offender.  However, as also previously advised, difficulty often arises in identifying the owners of businesses which use website addresses or phone numbers only and therefore enforcement action proves problematic in this regard.

The Final 2015 IBAL report classified Tallaght as "Moderately Littered" and reported specifically as follows (without reference to illegal signage):

"Well over half of the sites surveyed in Tallaght got the top litter grade – some of the very good sites included Tallaght Village, the residential areas of Springfield and Oldbawn and Tallaght Square. The Institute of Technology Tallaght, was particularly well presented and maintained. However, there were two litter blackspots which brought down the ranking. The first of these was a site on Cheeverstown Road and the second was the road to Lucan.

It is important to note that, in accordance also with the provisions of the Section 19 Litter Pollution Act 1997 as amended, signage is not illegal if placed on private property with the consent of the property owner. In some high profile areas signage has been erected on private property with the permission of the owner and fines / prosecution cannot be pursued in such instances.

Similarly, owners / occupiers can exhibit electioneering signage at any time on private property (and not confined to the certain specified election time constraints) if it has the benefit of planning permission, or is exempt development as prescribed in planning regulations.