Dublin People - Councillors call halt to loss making waste service

Home

News

Motoring

Councillors call halt to loss making waste service

Wednesday, 23 July 2008

Councillors in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown have called on the local authority to discontinue their multi million euro loss making waste collection service following the revelation that the council has not collected over e25 million that it is owed.
The latest audit to be published into Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council’s accounts for the year 2006 show that it had failed to collect e25.8 million due to it in waste charge arrears.
In addition, the audit report found that over 5,000 households in the county had paid nothing at all since the waste charges were introduced in 2000.
Several councillors are now demanding that the council stops providing a waste service altogether added to the fact that the local authority has lost in the region of e10 million since the entry of private waste firms into the market such as Panda and Greenstar last year.
As part of its budget estimates for 2008, the council revealed earlier this year that it lost a massive e7 million from the operation of its waste services last year. One local representative has claimed that this figure has increased to at least e10 million.
Cllr Jim O’Leary (FG) has called on council officials to stop providing the service altogether and has urged them to spend the millions of euros it could save on other areas.
He estimated that the council has now lost almost half of its original total of 70,000 customers. He attributed this to the fact that the service offered by private operators was cheaper and more frequent than the council’s.
Cllr O’Leary claimed the council agreed to allow time for efforts to be made to address the cost and efficiency issues in the waste collection department last year but that, to date, there had been no resolution on the issue.
“As a result, the council has lost in the region of e10 million on its waste operation in the last year,” he said. “Furthermore the private waste collectors are now prepared to offer waivers.
“As far as I'm concerned time has run out and I'm now calling on the manager as chair of the environment committee to withdraw from the provision of waste services.”
Essential
He added: “Let Panda, Greenstar and Oxigen provide the service and allocate the annual e10 million in savings to more important areas like the provision of disability grants and essential repair grants for older people.”
Cllr Marie Baker (FG) backed the call and said it was only “logical” that the local authority should stop providing the loss making service.
“The council cannot compete in this market,” she said. “We are never going to get these customers back. I don’t see how we can turn around a situation where we can at least break even whatever about making a profit. So I am afraid logic would dictate that a tough decision is going to have to be made sooner rather than later.”
The county council has been in discussions with the trade union IMPACT about the potential restructuring of the local authority’s bin service.
The assistant general secretary of IMPACT, Johnny Fox, said the union’s discussions on proposals with the council were at an advanced stage.
“We are obviously opposed to any calls to scrap the service,” he said. “As soon as you take away the council the price of delivering the waste management services will shoot up as at has done in other parts of the country.
“We do believe that if we restructure the waste management services we can win customers back; that is the whole idea of the restructuring. It is designed on the basis of a business plan going forward.”
Southside People contacted Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council on the matter but they declined to comment.

Facelift keeps Focus a nice sight

Thursday, 04 December 2008

The Kuga had been short listed for the 2009 Semperit Irish Car of the Year award. It had to cleaned and polished and ready for a possible dramatic entrance at the awards dinner in the Crowne Plaza...
+ Full Story

Jaguar XF gets luxury car award

Thursday, 04 December 2008

For the first time in the 30 year history of the Irish Car of the Year, this year's awards were spread over five categories highlighting the diversified nature of today's car market in...
+ Full Story

Home move motorists hit by fines

Thursday, 04 December 2008

Many motorists neglect to update their contact details with the department when they change address and as the standard length of a driving licence is ten years they don’t receive...
+ Full Story

Comfort and space with Hyundai’s cross wagon

Thursday, 27 November 2008

Obviously something small like a foot rest is unlikely to help you make up your mind when buying a new motor, but it may be important long term. I've been testing the Hyundai i30CW recently...
+ Full Story