Skibb bring site opening hours are criticised

BY JACKIE KEOGH

THE revised opening hours for Skibbereen’s newly upgraded bring site are unworkable, according to a local councillor.

Fine Gael’s Karen Coakley said the 9am to 4.30pm opening times, Monday through to Friday – with one hour off for lunch between 12.30pm and 1.30pm – shows no consideration for people working normal office hours.

Last week, the councillor tabled a motion calling on Cork County Council to reconsider the opening hours, saying: ‘The lack of access will lead to dumping on our country roads.’

She said people want to recycle but in order to do so the site needs to be more accessible, and there should also be more incentives for people to use it. And one way of doing that would be to open every Saturday, even if it was just for the morning.

Describing the new facility – which went into operation last Monday, September 9th  – as ‘fantastic’, the councillor welcomed the fact that it would ‘finally allow people to dispose of domestic waste’ at a cost of €4 a bag or 50 cent per kilo, as well as offering recycling receptacles for paper, plastics, cans, clothing and electrical goods.

Locally, however, there have been some complaints that what was once a freely accessible recycling service will now incur a €3 admission fee – a fee that Cllr Coakley described as ‘discouraging.’

Cllr Joe Carroll (FF), who had long campaigned to have the facility upgraded to include the collection of domestic waste, said: ‘We never realised it was going to come with such restrictions. By the time you add the admission fee and the cost of a single bag of refuse, people will be paying €7 to get rid of a bag of rubbish.’

The Council’s municipal officer, Justin England, said the new hours had already been revised to include opening on Mondays, as well as a staggered lunchtime between 12.30pm and 1.30pm, but he said he would relay their concerns to the director for environmental services.