LABOUR Party councillor Joe Leddin has called for clothes bins at bring banks in Limerick City, which he deemed “an unmitigated disaster”, to be removed.
Speaking at a Climate Action Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) meeting this past week, Cllr Leddin highlighted the issues as he sees them. According to the SPC’s chairperson, up to 70 bags of clothes were “strewn all over the place” at a bring bank on the Dock Road the previous weekend, despite CCTV cameras being in place.
“It’s happening every weekend, particularly with the clothes, more so than the bottles. It’s gone to the stage now where I’m getting phone calls about this bring bank and I’m nearly going to suggest we get rid of the clothes from down there, and get rid of the whole thing if it can’t be managed,” Cllr Leddin insisted.
Fine Gael councillor Sarah Kiely told Council members that she had passed the Dock Road bring bank on her way to the meeting and it was “still in an awful state”.
She said she logged a complaint on the site herself in recent weeks, and took the view that all councillors should be onboard with how to address waste management.
“The issue is always the clothes banks and I know from Roxboro as well that there’s specific issues around clothes. I think the only way we are going to remedy this is to stop having clothes banks because they are not the same operators as the glass operators, so it’s different days for collection,” she commented.
Clean-up operations, Cllr Kiely maintained, leave a lot to be desired also at bring bank sites. Most of the time, she suggested, it’s only “a cat’s lick and a promise” when it comes to cleansing.
“They’re really not addressed satisfactorily at all. It’s causing rodents in certain areas and clothes banks are being raided by certain individuals to see if there’s anything of value in them.
“I have even heard anecdotally that children are sent into clothes banks, posing its own health and safety concerns, to pull out bags,” she added.
Independent councillor Elena Secas urged that clothes banks should not be removed without community consultation. She said that in her area of City East, there have been calls for more bring banks, and suggested moving the banks rather than removing them completely.
Social Democrats councillor Shane Hickey-O’Mara suggested that cameras should be used to enforce bye-laws and catch the culprits engaged in illegal dumping.
The Council’s head of Environment and Climate Action, Aidan Finn, pointed out that Tipperary County Council recently removed all their clothes banks. Limerick Council, he explained, are now looking into the “genesis” of that decision by their county neighbours.
CCCTV cameras, councillors were informed, are working very well at the Dock Road, Park Road, and Milford bring banks. Since Christmas, Limerick Council is in the process of issuing 80 fines to illegal dumpers.
– Local Democracy Reporting Scheme