Donegal County Council to take legal action over illegal dumping at bottle banks

Donegal County Council is taking legal action over incidents of illegal dumping at a number of bottle bank facilities.

The January meeting of the Lifford-Stranorlar Municipal District (MD) heard that this was a particular issue in both Convoy and the Twin Towns.

In relation to Convoy, Councillor Patrick McGowan said a ‘certain cohort’ was abusing the good nature of a local businessman who is allowing the banks to be placed on his premises.

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“There is a more serious issue in Convoy,” he explained. “A private business allows banks to be placed there by the local Environmental Committee, but they’re being abused by some people. The volunteer environmental committee monitors the situation, but a certain cohort abuses it and services are going to be lost. It’s not the fault of the local business if he’s forced to close it (the banks) down.”

Cllr McGowan also told the meeting the bottle banks at Supervalu in Ballybofey were all full over Christmas.

He said: “So, it’s not the local people's fault when they fill their car boot and go there only to find the bins haven’t been emptied by the council.”

In relation to Convoy, Caroline McCleary of the council’s Environment Section said that there will be a number of legal cases taken.

“Convoy is an ongoing issue, but there will be legal cases taken,” she said.

“The local environmental group and the business are doing great work. We are doing our level best to resolve the issues, but it’s a huge problem.”

Ms McCleary said illegal dumping at bottle banks reached ‘unprecedented’ levels last year, particularly over the Christmas period.

“There are always issues with bottle banks, but we were inundated this year with people leaving stuff off. There was a huge amount of stuff (dumped) this year, our staff were flat out and it was difficult to stay on top of it. It (dumping) was unprecedented this year.”

She added that illegal dumping was ‘particularly problematic’ at the Ballybofey bottle banks, but admitted that more more monitoring is needed.

“Illegal dumping is an ongoing issue, so we will have to look at installing CCTV. If banks are full, people tend to leave things there.”