Mobile cameras are an option available to Westmeath County Council in its ongoing prosecution of illegal dumpers, county manager Danny McLoughlin confirmed this week after Cllr Frankie Keena complained about a pony carcass dumped on a public road outside Athlone.
Cllr Keena was notified earlier in the week of the disturbing discovery on a public road in Annaghgorta bog, just off the main Athlone-Mullingar road (R390 ), and highlighted the blight of illegal dumping during a progress report to the members on the region’s waste management plan.
Cllr Keena referred to a recent programme on the TV which highlighted the success Cork City Council had in apprehending fly-tippers with the use of hidden cameras.
“To be honest, I’d love to catch whatever person did that, and I’d stand in any court in the land to see them prosecuted,” said Cllr Keena.
County manager Danny McLoughlin told the meeting “mobile cameras is an option available to Westmeath County Council,” and, referring to a similar incident in Rathowen, added: “We’ll try to identify the worst areas and proceed”.
Earlier, the meeting had been told that the regional waste management plan was “up for renewal” and that Offaly County Council was to begin to advertise for submissions next week.
The plan, which ran for five years since 2005, will be updated and re-adopted - asssuming no major hiccups - by Westmeath, Longford, Offaly, Laois, and North Tipperary before the end of the year. Considerable progress has been made across the region in this time, the members were told.
“The percentage of waste diverted for recycling now stands at 39 per cent, where the target was 46 per cent for 2013,” Mr McLoughlin told the councillors in a letter.
