COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, March 11, 2019

MOTION NO. 4

MOTION: Councillor C. O'Connor

That this Council calls on the Chief Executive to report on his evaluation of the Council's actions to deal with the 2018 Bonfire challenges; will he give details of the cost of the clean up of Open Spaces throughout the County and will he now confirm what early planning is in place for Halloween 2019 and will he make a statement.

REPORT:

The Council has always recognised the difficulties that Halloween causes for many communities through the illegal burning of waste on Halloween bonfires, the damage to local amenities, and the threat to property and local services.

For Halloween 2018, the Council adopted a cross departmental approach, utilising the services of Public Realm, Waste Enforcement, Environmental Awareness, Library Service, Housing and Community Services Departments to prevent damage and promote the “Safe Halloween” message. 

The Council's Halloween Safety and Environmental Awareness Campaign was launched in early October, with the publication of a colourful information leaflet providing facts and tips on how to stay safe at Halloween. The leaflet also contained details of the various family events hosted by South Dublin County Council’s Libraries which included inter alia Harry Potter Sorting Ceremony, Hallowe'en colouring competition, pumpkin-carving competition and many other spookily themed activities 

 “Bulbs Not Bonfires” continued again this year - this is a reward available through the Council’s innovative Social Credits Scheme which provides communities with flowers in the spring in return for organising alternative Halloween activities that does not harm our environment.

A free pass to Ballymount Civic Amenity Centre was also provided to every Social Credit applicant / group from 16th October to encourage recycling, one pass allows one entry for one car.  These passes remain valid until 13th November 2018.

Our Public Realm operations units collected bonfire material in a number of areas across the county since early October (North and South of the Naas Road), and liaised closely with residents. (Nonetheless domestic furniture including beds, bed frames, mattresses, chairs etc were collected from stockpiles).

All reports received advising of stockpiling of bonfire material were logged specifically for attention and all available resources were deployed to the preventative collections of bonfire materials prior to this Halloween, and a total of 336 calls were received directly to the office over the weeks immediately before Halloween with a further c 25 (excluding duplicates) made after hours. 

For operational safety reasons, contact was made early in the season with local Gardai to arrange a joint approach to dealing with the removal of material.

Our Waste Enforcement Section were in contact with over 150 businesses to advise them of their obligations regarding waste regulations, particularly relative to pallets and tyres.  Regrettably however, 1,100 pallets were still collected from stockpiled material in the days immediately before Halloween and tyres were also included in the stockpiling and movement of “waste” to fuel bonfires.

There were reports of 11 burnt out cars in the weeks across Tallaght and Clondalkin causing unnecessary damage to our parks, pitches and open spaces, and in a separate incident damage was also caused to an ESB mini pillar in one location.

Priority locations targeted for collection of material included bonfires being constructed in close proximity to houses, power lines, roadsides and transport routes.  Particular attention was given to bonfire removal requests from the Gardaí where they have identified a threat to property or services such as public transport.

In addition this year, recently acquired unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs / Drones) were used to detect the illegal stockpiling of bonfire material.   These drones are an important additional to the waste enforcement toolkit, and will provide evidence to officers on the ground of areas where visibility is sometimes difficult.

A total of 280 Halloween bonfire sites were recorded in the County for 2018. The Council collected and removed bonfire materials as a priority task through the month of October and for part of September also. The clean up of sites was completed in November and reinstatement where required will take place in the spring of 2019, once ground conditions are suitable.

Over the weekend and days immediately prior to Halloween, from Saturday October 27th to Wednesday October 31st, a total of 144.4 tonnes of bonfire materials was collected by this Council.  In total the Council collected 522.9 tonnes of waste during both the lead up to Halloween and from the clean ups which took place during the weeks after Halloween.  The total cost to the Council's Public Realm Section in 2018 was €138,940. 

The Council's response to Halloween in 2019 will involve the following -