CIVIC amenity sites will accept waste timber again, the environment director told members of the Western Division.

No exact date was given for the service’s resumption, but all council members welcomed the decision after months of prohibition.

At a previous meeting, last November, Cllr Danny Collins (Ind Ire) tabled a motion calling on the authority’s engineering department to find a solution because many carpenters and builders in West Cork were stockpiling waste wood and that was presenting ‘a safety hazard.’

Cllr Isobel Towse (SD) said she looked into the issue and found that untreated timber can be reused, but civic amenity sites no longer accept treated timber that has paint or other substances applied to it.

At the recent meeting, the director of planning said there had been a contraction in the waste timber market, which made it difficult to find outlets that would accept it as waste.

Mr Ger Barry said the local authority has since ‘addressed the backlog of material’ and will re-instate the service shortly.

Cllr Daniel Sexton (Ind Ire) said: ‘It is very important that wood that can be recycled is put to good use instead of being burned.’

Cllr Finbarr Harrington (Ind) said people only realised how much they relied on civic amenity sites for the safe disposal of timber once the service stopped.

A builder who burned waste wood because he couldn’t dispose of it at any one of the council’s 12 amenity sites got ‘a slap on the hand,’ according to Cllr Danny Collins.

The Independent Ireland councillor called on the public to report waste collection providers who are not properly licensed.

He recently saw a trailer load of rubbish that he feared would end up in a ditch somewhere. ‘These trailers are ending up in forests, or places we can’t see, and being dumped,’ he claimed.

Cllr John Michael Foley (FG) said a stockpile of timber attracts other rubbish and he also complained about fly-tipping over ditches and onto farms, including his own at Timoleague.

Mr Barry reminded councillors that accepting waste timer at civic amenity sites is available to domestic users only.

The environment director said: ‘There are options for people who want to dispose of their waste lawfully,’ and added that others can report illegal waste collection operators to the council’s own waste management department.