Council flouts waste and pollution laws
``We've lived here for 29 years,'' said one of the residents of Valley Park, a fine line of houses in Finglas which back onto Valley Park. ``In the old days we used to go fishing here on the river and kids used to play across the parkland. In those days there were birds, robins, but they are all gone. Just look at it now.''
Directly across from the houses across the parkland are several hundred wrecked cars, and two diggers, one nearby, another in the distance. ``They are digging holes into which they are emptying skips of rubbish. The rats have come, and the smell is terrible. The place is destroyed,'' says another resident.
``This whole park used to be part of the Forbes estate. But Fingal Council CPOd the land. There is no planning permission for the car dump, and dumping the rubbish here and then burning it up flouts every waste management and pollution protection control. It's a disgrace that the council is allowing this to go on,'' says the resident.
None of the residents want to give their names. They say they are scared there might be a `backlash' from those who are making money out of emptying the skips across the parkland.
Councillor Dessie Ellis, the local Sinn Féin representative, explains that ``Dublin Council, not wanting any role in sorting out the Dunsink Dump, which is now closed, hived the area off to Fingal Council when the separate councils were established. Fingal Council admits to having CPOd the property but still, unaccountably, refuses to stop the dumping.
``Under pressure, the council did take one of the people who are responsible for dumping rubbish here to court. They were fined £400 and £100 costs. But sure this is nothing compared with the money they are making from lifting skips and throwing the rubbish off in our parkland. It was an entirely unsatisfactory way of stopping the dumping or the pollution.''
Last weekend, fires were lit. The fire brigade came over and put them out. As soon as they were gone, the fires were lit again. When they were first lit, the flames flared up. It was as if there was inflammable liquid in the rubbish. ``We just don't know what's being dumped there,'' say residents. ``We just know it has destroyed our area, and the smoke from the fires is just unbearable. It has to be stopped.''
A spokesperson for Fingal Council spoke to residents in soothing tones of how by the end of next month people would need to have permits to dump rubbish. ``That is scarcely the point,'' replies Ellis. ``This dumping is totally illegal, there is no planning permission to dig holes or to stack up wrecked cars, or to dump rubbish all over the parkland. It is down to Fingal Council to put a stop to it immediately. People can't put up with it any longer.''
Ellis warned a council official that a meeting would be called, and, if driven to it, people would be up to picket Fingal Council if it continues to permit such blatant flouting of waste, planning and pollution laws.
``It is disgraceful that the councils are trying to charge people, through waste charges, for protecting the environment and dealing with trash in a proper way, and yet this council in Fingal, in defiance of every regulation, permits this pollution to go on and on. I've been weeks complaining to all the relevant authorities,'' says Dessie Ellis, ``but they have done nothing about it. We have had enough.''
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