Cork County Council received 1,144 litter, dumping and fouling complaints in 11 months

Cork County Council received 1,144 complaints about littering, illegal dumping, and dog fouling between January and November of last year.

While a freedom of information request by The Echo to Cork County Council was turned down due the volume of work involved, the local authority instead provided a sample of 20 complaints from across its municipal districts.

One West Cork caller said their neighbours in Kealkill are not adequately disposing of their rubbish, with bins and multiple black bags left out, attracting rats, mice, and crows to the area.

In one East Cork village a person was reported for dumping black bags of rubbish, white goods, doors, old toys, and an old van in their front and back garden and around the side of the house, attracting vermin. Another person reported rubbish being burnt inside the house.

HOOVER

Another complaint related to a TV, a Hoover vacuum, a bag of clothes, a quilt cover, and other domestic rubbish being dumped in a field in Quatertown Upper, Mallow.

In Dunmore, near Ardfield in West Cork, food peelings and bones had been spotted dumped in ditches, with a caller saying that this was a frequent occurrence. They noticed a dead rat recently and felt it was connected, adding that her dog ate some of the waste by accident, and had choked on a chicken bone.

Someone reported the dumping of wood, plastic, and black bags of rubbish in the field behind a Clonakilty housing estate, while multiple black bags along with cardboard was dumped next to the bottle bank in Baltimore Village.

One complaint about full black refuse bags on the left side of the N20 heading towards Mallow said that they had been there for at least two weeks.

Another said that two black bags of rubbish left by a metal footbridge in Rathcormac had been there for three weeks.

Another said there was litter “blowing everywhere “on St Mary’s Rd, Midleton and large amounts of litter left in the nearby graveyard.

DIRT FROM GRAVES

Black bags of rubbish, old Christmas trees, and excess dirt from graves was being dumped in St John’s cemetery in Ovens, one person informed the council. Another reported four to five black bags of rubbish, women’s shoes, and other loose items that had been dumped on the road from Nadd and Bweeng in North Cork.

One person got in touch with the council to say they had seen a man dumping rubbish in the bins along the road in Clancool Mor, Bandon and into the river there.

A caller near Freemount said that they had noticed a package with a name and addres at a regular spot for illegal dumping, which could enable the council to track down the person who had dumped the rubbish and fine them.

Others reported a couch and black bag of rubbish dumped near the quarry in Ballindangan, Fermoy; bags of household waste thrown over a gate and left on the side of the L2219 road; a white domestic rubbish bag and cardboard dumped at Dromore Drive in Mallow, and dirty nappies and other rubbish dumped near Rahilly St in Cobh.

The log sent to The Echo by Cork County Council shows that following each complaint, council officers inspected the site. All the complaints that were provided, were marked as being closed.