Council urged to shut illegal dump after fire

ANOTHER blaze near the Spring Lane halting site has prompted calls for City Hall to do more to tackle the issue.

Munster Fire Control confirmed that a unit from Cork City Fire Brigade attended the scene of a fire at Ellis’s yard, next to the Spring Lane halting site, at 11pm on Sunday night.

It’s the latest in a series of fires at the illegal dump.

Fires at the yard escalated in 2018 with almost 80 call-outs up to September. The number of callouts had doubled compared to the entire of 2017. Almost €200,000 has been spent by Cork City Council on cleaning up the site in the last decade.

Dumping has continued despite City Hall staff monitoring the site covertly.

Local Councillor Kenneth O’Flynn has called for the illegal dump, which is on Council-owned land, to be shut down.

Mr O’Flynn said: “Cork City Council and the Environmental Protection Agency have ignored completely this intolerable dump in the middle of our city.”