360 litter complaints received by council in five-month period

THE number of environmental complaints being submitted to Mayo County Council is continuing to rise.

Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that 518 complaints were received during the first five months of 2019 alone and they related to litter, waste, water and air pollution.

Litter was the most common complaint - 360 in total.

On January 2 of last year, a complaint was lodged in relation to dumping near Ballyheane. On the same day, there was a separate complaint about the dumping of plastic along the Castlebar river.

Another complaint was made about 10 bags of rubbish dumped in Lecanvey, Westport, while 20 bags of rubbish were abandoned at Oughty, Drummin, Westport.

A separate complaint was made about dumping in bins at the rear of apartments on the Turlough Road, Castlebar.

There were reports of dead lambs in Thomastown in February, while a dead cow as dumped in a drain.

In Ballyhaunis, adult nappies were dumped at the back of the bottle bank.

Other complaints relate to abandoned cars, fly-tipping and the burning of rubbish.

Meanwhile, Councillor Ger Deere has expressed his disappointment that the level of illegal dumping is increasing despite all efforts and education around this whole area.

He stated: "There needs to be more convictions. Those found to be responsible need to be named and shamed.

“I welcome that the council have invested in extra mobile cameras that can be used in rural areas where a lot of this illegal dumping takes place.

“One of the biggest problems is the dash board litterers, who discard all sorts of litter from cars along the roads. Last year, Tidy Towns volunteers collected over 150 bags of litter along a 3km stretch on the N5 into Castlebar.”

On dumping, he said: “As far as I am concerned, these people are committing treason.”