Bottle bank located outside primary school ‘needs to go’

A BOTTLE bank outside a school will not be moved unless a suitable alternative is found.

Cllr Máire Devine (SF) said the bottle bank on Grattan Crescent is “ill-positioned and needs addressing” with hundreds of students passing by it every day.

A delegation from Inchicore National School attended a previous South Central area meeting to discuss the matter with Dublin City Council.

Cllr Devine said the school and local councillors were under the impression that there was “a sense of an agreement” in place to relocate the bottle bank on the footpath outside the school.

It is a vital service, I use it myself. It’s just ill-placed,” said Devine at the area meeting this week.

Cllr Sophie Nicoullaud (R2C) agreed, believing it to be “unfair” to students to have the bottle bank and recycling facility outside the school.

“They go in to educate themselves and that’s what they have to face everyday, it is not very respectful.”

Nicoullaud also questioned whether the clothes bank, a privately owned facility that makes money, should be operating the service outside a school.

“Surely we can find another place for it or remove it,” asked Nicoullaud.

Cllr Devine asked DCC Assistant Area Manager Bruce Philip “are you not going to do anything about it?”

Mr Philips said the council had not agreed to a commitment to move the bottle bank as there is no alternative site for its location in the community, but the service was monitored.

“Since the delegation came in, the bottle bank was intensely monitored and we found that it was being extremely well used. In fact, it is one of the most important services that the council provide in the Inchicore area. The bottle bank is five times more used than a similar facility nearby and twice as much as another one.

“We also found it is kept well, tidy and on one occasion I visited it myself and found the area to be in good condition and didn’t find any of the issue presented to the committee on the last day,” said Philips.

Cllr Devine was disappointed with the answer.

“It needs to go. I can’t accept that. The people in Inchiore are for moving it because they understand the impact on children.”

Mr Philips said the council have looked at expanding the service in the past but locations are “hard to come by in an urban environment.”

His understanding was that the bottle bank had the support of the community and was well used.

He suggested if alternative sites were proposed, they could look at the possibilities.