Greater effort needed in tackling scourge of illegal dumping – Reilly

Increased resources needed to clamp down on problem

Fianna Fáil Local Election candidate for Cobh John Paul Reilly says a serious effort is needed to tackle illegal dumping.

He’s calling for additional resources for Cork County Council to help address the problem.

“Illegal dumping and fly tipping has developed into a serious problem in the Cobh area with people leaving their rubbish in parks, lay bys and on roadsides. Not only is this a major eyesore, it also sparks potential public health concerns. There’s not a week that goes by that I’m not contacted by locals reporting new littering issues”, said Reilly.

“The local Tidy Towns group and other organisations do great work in responding to littering problems but it cannot be left solely to them to tackle the problem.

“The government announced an anti-dumping initiative in 2017, but it is not working effectively.

“I am concerned that not enough resources are being allocated to local authorities. Manpower, surveillance and enforcement are also issues. We need to ensure the provision of full-time litter wardens in the area to help monitor the situation.

“Surveillance is key in clamping down on this issue and we need to increase the resources that are currently available to properly police illegal dumping in Cobh. Government initiatives and grand plans are all well and good, but we really need to see the resources allocated to County Councils to ensure action on the ground.

“I am pushing for an increase the number of CCTV cameras in place in dumping black spots, a fair allocation of funds for the new drone monitoring system and campaign for additional local authority resources to remove the burden from community groups”, concluded Reilly.