More than €60,000 spent on clearing up illegal dumping

Almost 20 tonnes of rubbish was cleared by the council from one dumping ‘blackspot’ in Mullingar last year, and 14 tonnes of waste were taken out of just a half-mile stretch of a bog in Milltownpass.

The figures were presented by John Jackson, community climate change officer with Westmeath County Council, in response to a query from Cllr Paddy Hill whether resources from a new Community Climate Change fund could be used in the prevention and clean-up of littering.

Speaking at a council SPC meeting last Thursday, Cllr Hill said: “It is shameful what is happening in some areas in terms of dumping. I’ve just got a report of dumping on the Multyfarnham to Coole road, again somebody just pulled up and dumped a whole load of stuff along the side of the road. If this could help in any way towards eliminating even some of it – it would be very worthy.

“It would be of major benefit to communities, and I think you need community buy-in to stop people from dumping, because it’s like the speeding on the road – you can’t put a guard at every crossroads and you can’t put a community warden in every place either.”

Mr Jackson said: “In 2022 we spent over €60,000 on particular blackspots that we identified, and in previous years we spent over €90,000. One of the projects we did last year focused on the bog in Milltownpass, and in a stretch less than a half-mile long, we took out 14 tonnes of waste.

“We took almost 20 tonne out of a particular blackspot here in town, so it’s an ongoing issue for us and we work very hard at it,” he said, adding that he had to commend the work of community groups and Tidy Towns groups.

“Just yesterday we submitted an order for more litter pickers, we just sent out 500 litter pickers and distributed them to community groups – that shows the amount of support we’re showing community groups and they’re showing us, but it’s an ongoing battle.

“It’s not something we’re going to solve this year, but we’ll continue to work hard. Every time we get a complaint, we investigate it, we try and find who the perpetrator is, we do a clean-up, but it just moves from one place to the other. So it’s a tough issue to address.”

The chair of the Environment and Climate Change SPC, Cllr Tom Farrell, said: “If these people could only see what they’re doing to the environment and also to their neighbours and friends!”

“The figures of €60,000 spent last year, and €90,000 the year before – at least it’s coming down, but that’s €150,000 that could be spent on other services in Westmeath, if only people could behave themselves.

“I would appeal to all communities to act, and if there is somebody dumping, pick up the phone, ring a councillor or the council and there will be action taken.”