Council Briefs: Monitoring Promises to Clear an Illegal Dump, and Toilets in Clontarf and Fairview

Monitoring Moves on Illegal Dump

On Monday, council managers at a meeting of the North Central Area Committee said they didn’t have much to report as an update on progress the council is making with tackling an illegal dump in a residential area in Priorswood.

“We don’t believe there has been any more dumping there,” said Derek Kelly, director of services.

At the last area committee meeting, on 19 September, council chief Owen Keegan laid out a plan to clear the giant piles of waste and roll out measures to make sure it doesn’t grow again.

At that meeting, Keegan said he would update councillors at the October area meeting about the plans to draw up and issue a tender to remove the waste.

At the October meeting, Kelly recapped that the council had committed a month earlier to getting new CCTV cameras installed within eight weeks. He would update councillors on the current timeline for that, he said.

Said independent Councillor John Lyons: “When the Chief Executive presented the memo to us last month, he said there would be another report in October. I’m asking now that we do receive a report.”

Councillors want to know what challenges and complications the council faces in tendering for a contractor to remove the waste, he said. “We can’t allow any more time to slip by.”

Councillors need to update local residents, he said. “So we need up-to-date information on a regular basis as to every step of this.”

Kelly said that there would be a meeting on 18 October to discuss the dump and so he would issue an update to councillors after that.

Toilets in Clontarf and Fairview

Dublin City Council plans to tender for a contractor to sell coffee and supervise the toilets in Fairview Park, again.

The council had appointed a contractor to run a coffee dock in Fairview Park, who was supervising the toilets for a few months, said senior parks superintendent Fergus O’Carroll, at the meeting of the North Central Area Committee Monday.

But that contractor decided to move on. The council then tendered again but the contract was for less than a year, he said, so it wasn’t viable.

“We are going to look at re-tendering again with a view to getting someone in place for next year,” he said.

It would be better for the new contractor to start in spring, he said, instead of winter.

Social Democrats Councillor Catherine Stocker said: “In all the comings and going with different operators and tenders it sounds like it would be just as viable to hire someone to clean the toilets.”

O’Carroll said that the toilets need to be supervised. “The toilets in Father Collins Park were vandalised within an inch of their lives.”

Councillors said they wanted to see the existing toilets open in Fairview Park, with or without the coffee dock. They also called for toilets to be built on Clontarf promenade.

Said O’Carroll: “We think they are a good idea but they should be incorporated into the new design for the flood defences and provided with some form of supervision.”

Councillors did not agree. They said that, because of the lack of toilets, some older people don’t go out walking.

“We have been waiting for the flood defences for over a decade,” said Green Party Councillor Donna Cooney. “It would be a long time waiting to use a loo.”

Independent Councillor Damien O’Farrell said, “It’s very disappointing regarding Clontarf promenade.” It is one of the busiest walkways in the Dublin City Council area, he said.

“They promised us a toilet with a cafe,” said O’Farrell who asked for a written report on the issue. “In the whole country, all the other local authorities can do it.”