Illegal dumping ‘cannot be tolerated’

Illegal dumping in a Jobstown park is something “that cannot be tolerated”, according to councillors.

Cllr Paddy Holohan (Ind) has called on the council to “establish a plan to tackle the recuring litter problem in Kiltalown Park”, and to remind people that “we are a community”.

“A few residents had called me, and I’d noticed it myself that it always seems to have this back up of litter, on the road as well outside the park and in front of Jobstown Boxing Club,” he said at the Tallaght Area Committee meeting on February 23.

Praising the work that had been done in the past by South Dublin County Council, Cllr Holohan said he was “just trying to get a plan or a reminder to residents in the area” about littering in the park.

“There’s a few people that do let us down unfortunately, and we have to all live amongst that, nobody should get a small percentage being able to ruin an area,” he said.

“It’s important to remind people that, especially if they are council tenants, that we are a community and we all need to stick together – it cannot be tolerated people dumping or burning rubbish.”

Replying to Cllr Holohan’s motion, senior executive Parks and Landscape officer Brendan Redmond said SDCC are aware of ongoing littering in Kiltalown Park, “particularly the dumping of household waste over railings adjoining the park”.

“We are finding it is household waste that is being advantageously dumped,” he told councillors at the Tallaght meeting.

“We [public realm staff] go out and clean the area only to find ourselves back the following week doing the same thing over and over again, it is quite annoying from our perspective,” he said.

The “plan of action” is to have increased Litter Warden inspections in Kiltalown Park “with the aim of deterring further instances of illegal dumping at this location”.

“All dumped material is searched for evidence and where evidence is found, the appropriate enforcement action is taken under the Litter Pollution Act 1997,” he stated, adding that the issue has also been “flagged with our Enforcement section” who will look at CCTV in the area.

Cllr Holohan thanked Mr Redmond for his replies and welcomed the planned investigations and enforcement, adding that the “more people get away with this, the more we will see of it”.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme