The elected members of Mayo County Council praised the effort of the council in relation to environmental enforcement following a presentation by director of services for the council, Seamus Granahan, at their monthly meeting this month. During his presentation Mr Granhan told the meeting that the council had spent €135,000 on street clean ups, had issued 160 on the spot litter fines, and brought 24 successful prosecutions for littering in 2008 compared to less than 10 the previous year. He also told the members that so far in 2009 the council had carried out 22 major clean up operations at a cost of €132,000 and had a CCTV detection programme in place that was up and running along with greater co-operation between the council and An Garda Síochána in relation to litter enforcement. He also informed the members of a car bin scheme which the council was about to launch throughout the county to encourage people to stop throwing rubbish out their windows as they drive.
Fine Gael Cllr Paddy McGuinness speaking at his last meeting before he retired from the council said: “I’d like to thank Seamus for his presentation and recognise the great work that Mayo County Council are trying to do to prevent illegal dumping in the county. If I was staying on in the council this would be one of my main issues to see we get a control over. But the sad thing is that until we make illegal dumping to be seen as serious and anti-social offence as drink driving we are going to have problems with it in the county.” Cllr Johnny Mee, who was also attending his last meeting before retiring from the council, had similar feelings on the issue to Cllr McGuinness. “I’m very disappointed with the amount of illegal dumping I see every day, the problem is how do you get through to a man who come along in the darkness of night and tip his trailer or bags into some picturesque area that what he is doing is wrong, if he’s doing it now,” said Cllr Mee. “It’s not until someone gets six months in jail that they are going to get the message.”
