Dumping in Laois town's housing estate called out as 'criminal'

An area of unused land in Mountrath is being used as domestic dumping ground with sofas, beds, toys and also sorts of rubbish being fly-tipped over a wall at the boundaries of three housing estates.

The situation was highlighted by Cllr James Kelly, who didn't mince his words when calling out what is going on as 'criminal'.

The Independent representative provided pictures to the Leinster Express Laois Live which are proof of the problem which he said has been made worse by the waste being set on fire.

Furniture is mixed in with rubbish in big piles after apparently being pegged over a wall at the rear of St Fintan's Terrace / Fr O'Connor Cresent and Rushall housing estates in the town. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

While rusty cans appear to reveal a long standing problem, items in a new spate of dumping show the problem is has got even worse.

Cllr Kelly highlighted the problem when tabled a motion at a meeting with Laois County Council officials and other public representatives in County Hall. He was appalled by what is happening.

“It’s a disgrace. It is in a built up area. It is a continual problem…It is disrespectful and criminal,” he said.

He praised the council staff for the quick response in the past fortnight but that drew another type of response from the culprits.

“Somebody decided to set fire to the sofas which created another hazard. They knew that the coucil was out clearing up,” he said.

The councillor said action is needed to put a stop to the problem.

“I’ve asked for the area to be fenced off to prevent cars and trailers dumping rubbish. Hopefully when the site is cleared the feincing can go up,” he said.

Cllr Kelly was annoyed that such a step had to be taken.

“That we have to stop people from using this lovely green area is terrible, it’s a disgrace,” he insisted.

Cllr John King, Fine Gael, backed his colleague. He said boundary roles should be walls rather than wooden fences adding that this should be a condition of houses being built.

Cllr Ollie Clooney, Independent, also supported Cllr Kelly. He felt that the problem could be solved easily if bureaucracy is overcome.

Laois Gardaí alerted over "commercial dumping " in private forest

“It will be solved if we cut out the red tape and bring in (CCTV) cameras. There could be only  a small number of people doing this but we have to know who they are and deal with it. This is a blight on everybody,” he said.

In a written reply, Mr Trevor Hennessy, A/Senior Engineer, Housing, said his section would investigate the matter with the housing section to ascertain the issue.

The matter was raised at the April Borris-in-Ossory Moutmellick Municipal District meeting.