Rubbish piles, Businesses warn of impending crisis
The acting Ballinasloe Town Manager, Tom Kavanagh, has said that he will be seeking a High Court injunction to restrain private waste contractors from picketing Galway's only dump. The contractor's pickets have been preventing Corporation refuse lorries from entering the dump at Ballinasloe. So far there have been no direct talks to try to resolve the dispute and it looks as if the city and county will be without a refuse collection service until the middle of next week.
For the past two days, private contractors have been staging a protest at the Ballinasloe dump because of a row over the amount of commercial waste which can be disposed of there. The Department of the Environment suggested today that the crisis might be resolved if Ballinasloe Urban Council leased the dump to Galway County Council. It said that the County Council might be able to seek a review of EPA licence to allow current intake levels to continue, but the UDC Chairman Kevin Walsh told RTÉ tonight that he did not think this was a feasible solution.
Businesses and industries in Galway have warned that the county's refuse disposal crisis will create major problems for hundreds of firms in the region within the next few days. Day two of the refuse collection crisis has seen a small mountain of litter piling up on city centre streets, in schoolyards and in industrial estates.
The President of Galway Chamber of Commerce says that many local firms are threatening to reduce production and lay off staff unless an immediate solution can be found. Joe Greaney told RTÉ News that his telephone has been hopping all morning as businessmen and industrialists warn of the impending seriousness of the crisis. He believes that it will only be a matter of day before firms have to put workers on protective notice and begin layoffs.
The head of one of Galway's food processing companies, J Coppinger, said that they would not be able to dispose of their waste beyond this afternoon and will be faced with major health problems next week. The Chamber of Commerce is now calling on the Environment Minister to intervene immediately to resolve the row at Ballinasloe dump.
