A LITTER management plan is being drafted by Cork County Council in a bid to provide standard guidance for all towns and villages.
The move comes as the issue was debated by councillors who pointed out that there are just three litter wardens employed to patrol the entire county which covers an area of 7,457sqkm – the largest in Ireland.
The local authority’s divisional manager Michael Lynch told councillors that a draft plan is currently being drawn up by the council’s planning and environment directorate.
‘It is anticipated that a draft litter management plans will be presented to the Environment, Climate Action and Biodiversity SPC (Strategic Policy Committee) and divisional committees for consideration in the coming months,’ he told a meeting of the council last week.
Councillors Eamonn Horgan (SD) and John Buckley (Ind) raised a motion at a meeting of the local authority asking the council to consider drafting a county-wide litter plan with a view to giving guidance and standardisation on general waste and litter management.
Cllr Horgan said: ‘It’s a constant issue when it comes to constituents and we are trying to give them the information and sometimes it’s lost in translation. Sometimes we are getting the blame about no bins in some areas.’
He requested that councillors have more input into any draft plan and that villages also need to be included, adding that Tidy Towns groups can contribute.
Cllr John Buckley pointed out that just 57 litter fines were issued by Cork County Council last year compared to 83 the previous year.
‘There are only three full time litter wardens in the county and I think it’s very under-resourced. There were 738 fly tipping complaints made last year but only one ended up in court,’ he said.
Cllr Audrey Buckley (FF) said they were delighted to get some solar bins installed in their local area after fighting for them for a long time.
‘The solar bins do work very well and they do even take the smaller pizza boxes. We too as councillors have a role to play in educating young people about litter,’ said Cllr Buckley.
‘We have a problem too that we are not getting more bins and one was burnt out recently and we were told it wasn’t going back in.’
However, she said there has to be stronger enforcement when it comes to litter and fly-tipping. ‘I’ve never actually seen or met a litter warden while the fines are very low,’ she said. ‘They should come to the local beaches in our area and sit there and hand out fines due to people littering there.’
She said she hoped that on-the- spot fines will increase with the upcoming appointment of two enforcement officers in the Carrigaline area.
Cllr Daniel Sexton (Ind) said it’s important that they look at securing more solar bins across the county.
