Offaly bottlebank litter louts will be caught on camera

CCTV cameras have been placed at an Offaly County Council bottlebank in Portarlington to catch litter louts.

Surveillance cameras have also been installed at Garryhinch bog, the Derries and Clonearl, Mary Hussey, senior engineer, told a meeting of Edenderry Municipal District.

The environment section of the council received 137 complaints in the Edenderry area up to October 31 and 65 of those related to litter.

Government funding of €65,000 had been spent on CCTV and clean-ups, including work at the encampment in Edenderry across the road from the Dunnes Stores shopping centre.

Ms Hussey assured councillors that litter wardens continued to operate “even during the current level 5 restrictions”.

“All inspections are being carried out and followed to their nth degree. In one particular case we had a positive conclusion to the satisfaction of both the environment section and the housing section.”

Replying to a query from Cllr Mark Hackett, Green Party, who said he hoped the CCTV system could be introduced in other areas, Ms Hussey said it depended on further funding and a continuation of an anti-dumping initiative.

“We've got it every year for the last few years but it's not guaranteed funding so if they run the initiative again next year we'll apply and we'll roll out the CCTV cameras further.”

The engineer also told Cllr Noel Cribbin, Fine Gael, that the council would look into what the councillor called a “problem area” at the new shops at the Tesco store.

“For some reason there's teenagers gathering down at the back of that and it's a horrid litter problem and it's very unsightly for the new shops that are moving into the area that the first thing people are going to see is litter and a lot of litter.”

Illegal dumping was also raised at the November meeting of Offaly County Council by Cllr Ken Smollen who said it is vitally important that more CCTV cameras are installed.

The Independent councillor said he had been shown letters received by Tullamore residents from the HSE in relation to vermin.

“It's absolutely desperate. There was a clean-up in that particular estate in the last couple of months but now it's absolutely desperate again.”

He was told by council chief executive Anna Marie Delaney that funding had been received for additional CCTV and she would see if that could be increased.