COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, July 09, 2018

QUESTION NO.8

QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor

To ask the Chief Executive if he is working on plans to deal with the annual challenges presented by the Halloween bonfire season; will he understand the demand from many communities that effective action be planned in that regard and will he also confirm contacts he is having with the Gardai and other agencies and also give details of any Council organised events to combat the bonfire threat and will he make a statement.

REPLY:

As in all previous years, the Council's response to 2018 Halloween Season as provided by our Public Realm Section will commence in early / mid-October, at which time every effort will be made to collect materials which are being stored on public owned lands and are intended for use on bonfires. 

All reports made directly through the offices advising of stockpiling of bonfire material, will be logged specifically for attention, subject to usual Health and Safety requirements.   All available resources will be deployed to the preventative collections of bonfire materials prior to this Halloween and crews will work in response to the reports received.

For the first time, SDCC will deploy recently acquired unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs / Drones) to boost our ability to detect the illegal stockpiling of bonfire material as it happens.   These drones are an important additional to our enforcement toolkit, and will provide evidence to officers on the ground of areas where visibility in sometimes difficult.

Due to the large number of reports which can be expected, particularly on 31st October 2018 it should be noted that it will not be physically possible to remove all reported material, and that Public Realm staff are only authorised to remove material from public property such as a park, public open space (green) or public road.

Priority will be given to material located beside or very close to houses, park facilities such as playgrounds and pavilions, under overhead services such as power lines, and on main traffic routes (roads/ verges) where a threat may arise to traffic and as directed by the Gardaí.

Similar to previous years the Council will promote "Safe Halloween", and extensive programmes will be developed by / through EWCC, d Social Housing Social and Community Development Departments and Library Service, details of which will be published nearer the time.  

The Community Services Dept will also have a small amount of funding set aside to assist local community centres and community groups who may wish to apply for a small grant to assist with some of the costs assocaited with organising local family friendly pro-environmental halloween community events.