COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
Monday, September 10, 2018
QUESTION NO 22
QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor
To ask the Chief Executive to update members of plans in place to deal with the annual challenges presented by the Bonfire Season at Halloween; will he understand the concern of communities in respect of damage caused to our Open Spaces and in that regard confirm the annual cost of dealing with these matters; will he give assurances and make a statement.
REPLY:
The burning of waste is prohibited under legislation, bonfires waste valuable Council resources in the removal and disposal of material, while many communities also suffer from the social, economic and environmental cost of this activity.
As in previous years the Councils response this Halloween Season as provided by our Public Realm Section has already commenced in August with a number of complaints about storage of bonfire material having been received and responded to by Public Realm crews. This will continue through the months of September and October followed by clean up of bonfire sites in November.
All available resources will be deployed to the preventative collections of bonfire materials prior to this Halloween, crews will be assigned to this task as necessary during normal working hours but also at weekends and on the run up to October 31st itself.
Priority will again be given to the removal of 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 where the Council are requested to take action by the Gardaí.
The exercise to survey and map bonfire sites in 2017 recorded a total of 388 bonfire sites in total across the County, broken down as shown below. The mapping exercise will be repeated once again in 2018 and this will provide details of bonfire sites to be cleaned and these sites will also then need to be revisited for reinstatement in 2019 once ground conditions permit.
- Bonfires North of N7 = 148
- Bonfires South of N7 = 240
Interesting statistics to note from 2017:
- From mid-October to 31st October, through reports made directly through the offices and through our out of office hours service, the Council was notified of c 300 locations (excluding duplicate locations) advising of stockpiling.
- a total of 55 tonnes of bonfire materials was collected by the staff and prevented from being placed on bonfires over the Bank Holiday weekend and including Tuesday 31st October 2017.
- In the two week period prior to Halloween a quantity of waste materials totalling 156 tonnes was collected by SDCC staff and it is estimated that the vast majority of this was material intended for bonfires.
- Post Halloween 201 tonnes of waste was removed
- The cost of Halloween 2017 was c €87,000 including payroll, plant /machinery and waste disposal costs and this is typical of the annual cost to the Council in each of the past 4 years.
The 2018 Halloween strategy is similar to the strategy engaged in previous years which also provides for a safe and pro-environmental message as follows:
- a colourful information leaflet providing facts and tips on how to stay safe at Halloween. The leaflet also contains details of the various family events hosted by South Dublin County Council’s Libraries.
- Door to door WEEE collection prior to Halloween by RecycleIT
- A Halloween pack including information and activity sheets will be made available to all schools
- Halloween Recycle workshops are being carried out in schools
- Bulbs not Bonfires scheme is being provided through the Social Credits Scheme. This is a reward available and the initiative provides communities with flowers in the spring in return for organising alternative Halloween activities which will not harm our environment.
- Passes will be provided to social credits applicants for access to the Civic Amenity Site from the 16th October – 13th November 2018
- The Council will examine how best to use social media to convey the importance of public safety and the protection of the environment during this Halloween season.