SDCC spent €20k disposing of bonfire material in lead up to Halloween
By Maurice Garvey
SOUTH Dublin County Council spent approximately €20,000 to dispose of bonfire materials in the lead up to Halloween night.
Overall clean-up costs for Halloween are likely to be much higher, as the €20,000 total does not include labour costs to collect materials.
The figures, supplied to Social Democrats Councillor Dermot Looney at a council meeting this week, also do not include “any element of the cost to clean up bonfire sites after the fires have stopped burning.”
A major problem in a number of communities across the county this year, was certain households were putting domestic rubbish on smoldering bonfires – which prevented the local authority from cleaning up the mess until the fire had gone out completely.
In response to Cllr Looney’s question on costs associated with dealing with bonfires and other Halloween activities, SDCC said an exact figure of the number of bonfires is still being collated.
“This will determine the ultimate cost of the clean-up phase of Halloween 2017,” said SDCC.
Pre-Halloween, SDCC brought in all available staff on Saturday, October 28, and between October 28-31, staff collected a total of 55 tonnes of bonfire materials, preventing this from being placed on bonfires.
In the two-week period prior to Halloween a further 156 tonnes of waste materials was collected by SDCC staff.
A number of locally organised community Halloween events were supported by SDCC’s Community Services Department, who provided €12,463.92 in grant aid.
Clondalkin benefitted from the lions share of aid (€6,400) after intense lobbying by local councillors, and the relatively peaceful Halloween in Dublin 22 was testament to those successful community run events.
