No refuse service

No refuse service

Anton McNulty

A DISABLED man who has an artificial leg and severe arthritis is being forced to bring his refuse four miles to the county dump because he has been told by private refuse collectors that they will not supply a service to his area as it is not profitable.
Mr Peter Gordon, who lives at Leitir, Islandeady, explained to The Mayo News that he is living a ‘nightmare’ after he was told by all the private refuse collectors that they will not operate a service in the area because he lives too close to the civic amenity centre in Derrinumera, even though a service did operate in the area.
One company told him they would collect it if he left his bin at the Newport road, which is a mile-and-a-half from his house, but Mr Gordon explained that because of his disabilities he is unable to do this and cannot regularly get to the amenity centre. He suffered a serious accident when he worked in England and has just been fitted with an artificial leg and is waiting for a complete leg replacement, as well as suffering from a broken back and severe arthritis.
He said that he tries to recycle all he can, but the rubbish continues to pile up and he has nowhere to store it. He said he does not have a car trailer and his son, who lives with him, is only 16 years old and has no licence to get to the centre.
“It has been more than difficult, it has been a nightmare since the refuse service stopped coming around here. I have to wait until someone can help me bring my rubbish to the tip but going to the tip costs a lot of money. I have nowhere to store the bags and if I didn’t have cats, the place would be littered with rats. Even when I am able to get to the dump, the smell and the seepage gets all over the car,” he said.
Peter said he tried to talk to people in the Council about the situation but he feels he is not getting any satisfaction from them. Mr Jude Walsh, acting county secretary with Mayo County Council, told The Mayo News that the Council had privatised the refuse service and they had no control over who or where the refuse collection served.
“We are no longer engaged in the refuse collection service and we have no facility to provide a service to an individual who is not able to get a service. We have privatised the service and we have no intention of going back to collecting the refuse,” he explained.
Fine Gael TD, Michael Ring claimed the refuse companies were ‘cherry picking’ areas where they wanted to collect the refuse and it was something he warned would happen before privatisation came into place.
“The Council have let the people down and what has happened with privatisation is exactly what was predicted. We were given an undertaking that every part of the county would be covered and it has not happened. This man is entitled to a service and the service should be run by the Council not by the private sector,” said Deputy Ring.
Mr Stanley Bourke of Bourke Recycling Services Ltd confirmed that his company did cover the Leitir region but when the civic amenity centre in Derrinumera opened, he said his customers left his service. He said that while he was sympathetic to Mr Gordon’s plight there was no waiver system in place and there were not enough houses in the area to make the service profitable.