Castlebar town centre blighted by illegal dumping

Castlebar town centre blighted by illegal dumping


Rowan Gallagher

A RECENT spat of dumping in the centre of Castlebar has left business owners with the unpleasant job of cleaning up bags of household waste and human excrement left in alleyways.
Bags of waste are being dumped in alleyways in Castlebar, meters away from recycling facilities.
The only solution according to the Mayor of Castlebar, Cllr Ger Deere is to install additional CCTV cameras around the town and to double the efforts of the local Tidy Town Committee.
A butcher on Linenhall Street has been cleaning up the waste in the alley adjacent to his business beside the river, which has been a blackspot for rubbish for a number of years.
The rubbish contains a large amount of recyclable waste in the form of empty beer tins, food packaging and plastic bottles.
Speaking to The Mayo News last week Cllr Deere condemned the people taking part in the dumping.
“The items could easily have been recycled and were dumped near the recycling facility in Castlebar. The bags were investigated but as of yet no evidence to point to who it was has been found. This alleyway is in a blind spot from the cameras there so we need more cameras and probably have to redouble our efforts in the Tidy Town Committee and build some town pride and awareness.
“We looked through the rubbish but haven’t been able to find who has been dumping. This type of dumping is more common in the countryside, which isn’t good enough either. The business owners are also dealing with human excrement from the weekends,” Mayor Deere added.
Speaking about the footpath development on the main street in Castlebar Cllr Deere said that he hoped to have it finished by early spring and that during December that work would stop to allow business in the town to go ahead unaffected.