I visited Castle Harbour Portumna at the weekend and was surprised to see the bin compound closed with the following notice

Interesting as on the other side of the compound the following signs appear



Looks like buck passing.
Has anybody seen similar WI signs anywhere else ?
Have we been notified about this policy ?
Does anybody know who is actually responsible for the compound in Castle Harbour ?
While most weekenders could live with this (I think) what are people on holidays expected to do with their refuse ????

Don't tell them about this?
[www.bigbin.ie]
Paddy

That is unbelieveable. Firstly access to toilets removed and now no refuse disposal., how does someone on a boat for 3-4 week manage. Ireland of teh welcome for the hire boaters !!!!!
Only other place I have seen this is at the caravan park at Castle Archdale in NI where campers are supposed to take their rubbish home with them also. Doesnt work thought and we sat in the boat watching buggies heading towards the lake laden with black bags only to return back empty.....!
I wonder is this a policy that WI are using in NI ? and are maye spreading it throughout the whole system now. I'm sure come of our NI colleagues could let us know what its like up there.

its just a way of dodging the costs.

dave

Think in the North Fermanagh District Council is responsible at most of the jetties on the mainland, Castle Archdale is privately owned. There are obviously no bins on the Island jetties. The bin went from Tullyinishmore but that was because the local yobs were burning it.

Mike, couple of wee things there, Castle Archdale actually belongs to Northern Ireland Environment Agency, although they have it let on a long lease to a private man. I'm not sure who maintains the pump out there now, or who maintains the length of public jetty.

As to FDCs involvement, a long time ago FDC, who at that time had installed a number of public jetties, and Drainage Division agreed on a swap of responsibilities in that the Government Agency would provide new and maintain the existing facilities on the water and the Council would provide toilets, litter collection, etc. I think the later involvement of Waterways Ireland may have blurred that clear vision somewhat but not my problem!

Hope that helps to clarify, but maybe not, regards, Alun

Hi Des, et al. Yes looks a bit nutty aliright. In relation to Portumna, unless my memory is kabuddle I think those signs have been there for years including the 1st one, but I could be wrong. Were there any bins inside the compound? If yes I suspect boaters were not the problem but perhaps "some" locals using it as a free refuse service. When on the boat in Castle harbour in past years I have on the odd occasion seen a car pull up and put refuse in the compound. It's not really WI's job to manage refuse, more the local authorities and they are charging households so probably removing free facilities. Joined up thinking as regards tourisim - not!

OceanFroggie

I believe Co Co's remove bins from harbours during the winter, no boats = no rubbish, and if they were left in place they would be used as a free rubbish disposal service by the locals. I personally have witnessed on quite a few occasions, local private vehicles pull up and dump bags of rubbish into bins provided for boats at Banagher, Terryglass, Portumna and Dromineer. Hopefully the Co Co's haven't got fed up with this practice and decided to remove bins. Its not a problem to take rubbish back to home marina for disposal after a weekend, but if out for a couple of weeks, no bins in harbours would present a problem.
Perhaps the Co Co's could provide a "tout" line phone number for people to report illegal dumping in bins, by supplying the reg of the offending vehicle. I know that the person reporting the dumping would have to be prepared to furnish statements and perhaps appear in court as a witness, probably something that most people would not be prepared to do. But an alternative would be for the relevent council official to trace the vehicle reg supplied by the caller, call out to the registered owner of the vehicle and inform them that they have been reported for illegal dumping, and warn them that if reported again they will be prosecuted and advise them of the hefty fines that can be imposed. That would probably scare most people into not doing it again.I for one would not hesitate to call such a number and report offenders.

Mick,

Any such reporting would need to done ultimately with the council litter warden.

They would need to retrieve the dumped rubbish. Then put on their gloves and sift through it looking for evidence to link it back to the person who dumped it.

I am familiar with one litter warden in Dublin City.

If he saw you throwing a cigarette butt out your car window, he would have to record your car reg no., collect the evidence (Starting with the discarded cigarette butt) write to the offender to issue the summons and go to court to prosecute. He does this regularly.

I also recall a programme on television recently (TV 3 ???) which showed a company who were planting CCTV recording kit at well known fly tipping sites. Then then retrieve the kit, review the footage, supply the evidence to the council who engaged them in the first place and attend court to give evidence against the perpetrator.

Regards

Kieran

Quote:

Kieran Kearns

I also recall a programme on television recently (TV 3 ???) which showed a company who were planting CCTV recording kit at well known fly tipping sites. Then then retrieve the kit, review the footage, supply the evidence to the council who engaged them in the first place and attend court to give evidence against the perpetrator.

Regards

Kieran

Kieran,

The above sounds like a good idea, temporary CCTV recording kit monitoring bins for a few days would be bound to catch a few locals dumping rubbish. Once word got around the locality that a few people got done, I would say it would soon stop. The hefty fines should go a long way to funding it.