Appeal to name and shame flytippers

Appeal to name and shame flytippers

25 April 2018

COUNCIL officials are being urged to “name and shame” people who shamelessly dump their waste in secluded rural areas across the district.

The call has been issued by Downpatrick councillor Cadogan Enright after another illegal dumping incident at Old Course Road — just a stone’s throw from the town’s civic amenity site.

He says a number of local authorities across the UK and Ireland are publicly naming those who break the law by dumping their waste illegally and wants Newry, Mourne and Down Council to follow suit.

Cllr Enright, who along with local environmentalists is disgusted with the latest incident at the Old Course Road, took local authority enforcement officers to the site so they could witness not only the scale of the problem, but hunt through the waste in an attempt to find evidence of who may have been responsible.

Cllr Enright said enforcement officials discovered the names and addresses of six people on various pieces of paper and believed they may also have been involved in previous incidents at the same location.

“It amazes me that the people responsible for dumping this waste had to drive past the the civic amenity site at Cloonagh Road which is free to use,” he declared.

“This seems to be a pattern where people are happy to load rubbish in the cars and drive past the site before dumping it at the side of the road. Most people find this attitude very hard to understand.”

Condemning those responsible, Cllr Enright said he hoped they will get an “expensive and unwelcome rude awakening” when contacted by the authorities.

He said the Old Course Road was close to the Russell Gaelic Union’s facilities and the local authority’s cemetery.

“Local people visit the graveyard to remember loved ones and no one should not have to put up with this defilement of the local environment,” he remarked.

“Given so many councils are effectively using the ‘name and shame’ policy from Glasgow to London, I believe there is no excuse for us not doing the same,” he continued.

Cllr Enright added: “The naming and shaming policy appears to be working as a deterrent elsewhere and I believe we can make it work here and is something I intend to raise with council officials.”

Newry, Mourne and Down Council environmental enforcement officer Eleanor McCarthy explained the organisation will be contacting the people whose names were discovered in the waste material at the Old Course Road and issuing them with fixed penalty fines.

She said: “I would encourage the public to report cases of illegal dumping to the council. We don’t just go by car registration numbers, but can use a wide variety of written evidence or use personal testimonies to trace and deal with the culprits.”

Environmental activist Bill Corry said: “This sort of carelessness is not acceptable. There is an on-going campaign against dumping around Downpatrick and a lot of people are actively watching so-called dumping hot-spots. 

“I urge people to report anything they see and would appeal to those who engage in flytipping to  cease and use the facilities which have been provided for them. Landowners and farmers are also sick of illegal dumping which blights our district.”