Illegal dumping ‘disheartening’ for Ballinrobe Tidy Towns

Ciara Galvin

THE latest case of illegal dumping in Ballinrobe has been described as ‘disheartening’ by a Tidy Towns chairman Peter Heaps.
Commenting on the latest incident of fly tipping in the town, at Cornaroya, Mr Heaps said the reality is that unless people can identify the offenders, the dumping will continue.
“It’s disheartening. You hear people say it’s the same people doing it all the time, but you can’t prove that. People living near these spots don’t seem to see them [offenders],” said Heaps.
He added that Mayo County Council don’t have the resources to put cameras everywhere to monitor this type of activity but that it was up to people to report incidents to the council, litter warden and gardaí.
Mr Heaps explained that due to health and safety issues Tidy Towns volunteers cannot open bags of rubbish in attempts to identify perpetrators.
“There are still spots where this keeps happening such as Springvale bridge where we have found a bag of dirty nappies and Cloongowla where rubbish is dumped in ditches.”
On a more positive note Mr Heaps said Ballinrobe had gone up by six points in the most recent Tidy Towns competition.  
“It doesn’t sound like a lot but Tidy Towns adjudicators don’t give away points easily. There’s still a lot that needs to be done in the town but a lot of the responsibility lies with business owners.” said Mr Heaps.