DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL won’t be suspending street cleaning in litter ‘blackspots’ in Dublin’s north inner city, but the plan has not been completely discounted.

Brendan Hayden, of Dublin City Council (DCC) and its North Inner City Litter Action Group (NICLAG) which is monitoring dumping, said that the plan had been put on hold because of concerns raised by a number of councillors for the area.

He told TheJournal.ie that DCC is also to write to its own council tenants to ask them to inform them who they have a contract with for waste disposal.

“It is a proactive way of trying to highlight the issue,” said Hayden.

We are not saying our own people are not dumping as well. We need to be able to control that situation.

Council tenants in the north inner city area will receive a letter from DCC over the next few weeks and will be asked to submit proof that they are legitimately getting rid of rubbish.

Tenancies

The council is set to liaise with its teams investigating multi-unit tenancies and lettings. NICLAG has asked the council’s Environmental Health section to target certain streets when examining residences in relation to standards for renting, because it believes a lot of the illegal dumping problems stem from multi-unit tenancies.

The aim of this project will be to get tenants to inform the council how they dispose of their waste, and what waste collection companies they have a contract with.

Street cleaning

Hayden told TheJournal.ie that concerns had been raised in relation to health issues if street cleaning was suspended and bags were left on the streets. However, the idea hasn’t been completely discounted, and Hayden described it as “a proposal among another load of proposals”.

NICLAG is working on a number of proposals and is due to come back to the area committee meeting next Tuesday with a report including these.

If street cleaning is temporarily ended, it will only be done with the approval of councillors from the north inner city area. Unless the councillors are happy with the proposal, it won’t be brought in, said Hayden.

“It is there as an option as something we can use if other options are not working,” said Hayden. The council is working on a targeted approach to try and curb the growing issue of illegal dumping, and is set to launch a poster campaign in the coming weeks.

Hayden said they are trying to be proactive rather than pointing fingers. The activity is in an effort to end the practice of the council continuously having to collect illegal rubbish that people have dumped.

Disposing of the illegal rubbish is costing the council up to €300,000 a year, it emerged last week.

Read: Council could ‘name and shame’ illegal rubbish dumpers>

Read: Plans to end street cleaning in parts of Dublin described as ‘insane’>