COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM/TEMPLEOGUE/FIRHOUSE/BOHERNABREENA AREA COMMITTEE
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
QUESTION NO. 1
QUESTION: Councillor Alan Edge
To ask the Chief Executive what steps are being taken to tackle the ongoing problem of illegal dumping in the Glenasmole Valley and what options are open to this Council to improve the chances of successful prosecutions for such offences in rural areas of the county.
REPLY:
As part of the Council's commitment to deliver on the objectives of the Corporate Plan and Litter Management Plan, there has been an increased targeted focus on known litter generator areas. Similarly, there has been a raised visibility of our Warden Service through branded vehicles, and a number of structured routes have been identified for continuous patrol, as well as ad hoc patrols and investigations as required. Increasingly, it is found that no personal information relating to polluters is contained within the dumped material, with personal information having been removed or shredded.
From June of this year, for a period of 3 months, covert surveillance was deployed at two locations in the Piperstown Road area. This was carried out as part of the Department of Env Anti-Dumping Initiative 2019 Grant. The locations chosen have been subject to repeated incidences of burning and dumping of waste. Despite previous actions of removing the waste, patrolling the area and placing of signage, dumping still re-occured. The deployment of the covert surveillance has been very successful resulting in the detection of 3 incidenences of illegal dumping and burning at the selected sites. The evidence gathered has also provided valuable information to asssit in identifying persons involved in additional illegal dumpng activities in the area. Resulting from the on ongoing investigations, case files have been submitted to the Law Department for prosecution under the Waste Management Act 1996, as ammended. Court dates are pending. Further deployment of covert surveillance in the area will be considered as the need and justification arises.
As always, the Council is grateful for assistance and support from local residents or others in their investigations of such incidents as they arise. In the absence of substantive evidence / witness statements and the presence of such witnesses in court it is not possible for us to bring successful prosecutions. Residents may also report illegal dumping to the Environmental Protection Agency's anti-dumping hotline on 1850 365121.
The area is also within the catchment for the PURE project (Protecting Uplands and Rural Environments), which is a regional initiative involving and funded by South Dublin, Wicklow, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Councils and as well as Coillte, National Parks & Wildlife Service, and a number of non-statutory organisations including the Wicklow Uplands Council. The Pure project focuses directly on combating illegal dumping/fly-tipping in the Wicklow/Dublin Uplands, incorporating a number of enforcement and preventative measures, media/PR campaigns, public awareness campaigns, community projects, and educational initiatives. The project utilises a dedicated clean-up vehicle which responds, on behalf of the Local Authorities, to incidents of fly-tipping/illegal dumping. PURE also work with the Councils to identify the illegal dumpers for follow up action including prosecution by the Local Authorities.
In conjunction with removing illegal dumping in the Dublin and Wicklow mountains, PURE have a strong communications and awareness programme, including:
Website and social media – providing information on all aspects of Pure http://www.pureproject.ie/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Pureproject.ie/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/PureProject1