How much are Waterford City and County Council Contributing to the Problem of Illegal Dumping

How much are Waterford City and County Council contributing to the problem with illegal dumping in the County.

I am someone that walks a section of the R671 a road that links Youghal in East Cork to Clonmel in South Tipperary.

When a person is out for a walk and there is no pressure on them to get between two particular points in a certain length of time, I feel that you notice a lot more, especially if you have no distractions like listening to music via earphones, something many people do when they are walking, but it is something that i seldom if ever do.

Along a section of the above mentioned road between Millstreet and Ballinamult is a disused quarry in the townland of Lisleigh, which the council have used for almost as long as I can remember as a storage area for the chips needed when tarring the roads in the area.

But in the last while for whatever reason the council have decided that this quarry is no longer a place that they want to store the chips that they have in stock. They have even allowed countless tonnes of chips to be overgrown by briers and weeds, meaning that they will possibly be never used, certainly not in the near future.

Where the quarry is located is on an acute bend in the road with the River Phinisk coming almost up to a wall directly across from the quarry. Because the road is wide at this particular spot, for many years lorry and van drivers travelling the road often pull in and have a break from their driving, sometimes having a cup of tea which they have with them in their vehicle and something to eat. Some drivers also take the opportunity known that their vehicle is safely pulled in, despite it been on an acute bend will take the opportunity to stretch their legs and maybe have a call of nature.

In the last twelve months or so Waterford County Council or contract workers which they take on to carry out particular work for them have begun to use the quarry site as a sort of dumb for dumping might not be the correct word to use, but is the one that I will use here, of site clearings or the grass verges that they have taken off different roads in the area. They have used other areas where bends have been taken out in the road over the years and where people pulled in for a break, for similar purposes.

Recently while out walking I noticed that someone seeing that the Council or the contractors taken on by them have decided to dump soil in the area have decided to start dumping their own rubbish amongst those what the Council have put in the quarry area.

I have noticed recently that this has included a small black leather sofa and what I would call a black kitchen chair, or the type of chair that you might see in a barbers shop from time to time that customers can sit on till it is there turn to have a haircut.

While from time to time over the years when the council have used the area as store area for road chips some dumping has taken place at this site, I have never seen anything the size of chairs or sofas getting dumped at the scene.

A short distance up the same road towards Ballinamult, where the road meets one of the roads that will bring you to Touraneena, or onto the R672 a number of tyres have been dumped in a small wooded area on the banks of the Phinisk River.

I know that this dumping has been reported to the relevant section of Waterford City and County Council at least two if not three times. Maybe there are more reports of the dumping of tyres that I am not aware of. I can confirm that one of reporters was me who provided photographic proof to the council via email, and to date several weeks later the tyres are still to be seen.

I can’t wonder how serious Waterford City and County Council are about illegal dumping sites in the county. I know to the credit of the Councillors that some of them are reporting what they see for themselves or what is brought to their attention, and it must be very frustrating for them to know that those whose job it is to deal with illegal dumping are not doing their jobs when things are reported to them.