Council targets Nenagh litter site

Thirty fines have been issued over the littering of a bottle bank site in Nenagh.

Tipperary Co Council's Environment section used CCTV camera surveillance to catch offenders at the Tesco car park bottle banks. The council was aware of regular incidents of littering occurring at the site.

The types of material ranged from buckets to black bags, boxes and refuse discarded at both the bottle banks and clothing banks. A total of 30 fines were issued on the evidence gained from surveillance monitoring at the site.

The on-the-spot fine for littering is €150. Failure or refusal to pay can result in a court appearance and fine of up to €3,000.

Tipperary Co Council took in just under €10,000 in on-the-spot litter fines last year. By contrast, the council spent over €1.6 million on street and road cleaning. Litter warden services amounted to more than €295,000 while a further €186,000 was spent on public awareness initiatives.

The Tesco site fines were among 69 issued in the Nenagh Municipal District, according to the council's December 2017 Management Report. Far more fines have been issued in Nenagh than in any of the  county's other four municipal districts. The countywide number of fines stood at 139. Solicitor's letters have been sent to 10 offenders.
CCTV surveillance was installed at 43 locations around Tipperary.

Elsewhere, the report indicates that the council's Environment section removed 17 vehicles and 24 animal carcases during the year. Several anti-dumping initiatives were completed, including a river clean-up in Nenagh.

Nenagh's free-of-charge civic amenity site remains the most visited in Tipperary. A total of 56,625 visits were recorded at the site during the year. Roscrea's civic amenity site was the next most-used with 27,030 visits.

The Environment section has also issued 45 notices in respect of derelict or dangerous sites. Sixty new file cases were opened.