Local Councillor, Charlie O’Connor, has called on the Council to ensure that adequate resources are made available to deal with damage to our Open Spaces following the recent Bonfire season. He raised the matter at the December meeting of the Council and stressed the concern of many in respect of the matter.
The Chief Executive of the Council told Charlie O’Connor as follows: “All available resources have been deployed to remove bonfire materials prior to this Halloween, crews have been assigned to this task as necessary during normal working hours but also at weekends and on the run up to October 31st itself. Early contact was made with the Gardai to ensure that information was exchanged between SDCC and AGS and that assistance was provided as necessary in the effort to locate and remove the threat associated with bonfires and the storage of bonfire materials. The number of bonfires recorded in 2019 is 226, which is down from the number recorded in 2018.
A total of 585 tonnes of waste has been collected this year and 237 tonnes of that was captured pre Halloween and before it was set on fire. The total cost to date stands at €102,566 and this is expected to rise to around €150,000 when all costs have been included. Reinstatement of bonfire sites will not take place until the Spring, when ground conditions will have improved.”
According to Charlie O’Connor, this is an important issue for many communities and he also said that it was important to continue to stress, as we do every year, the educational message in respect of Bonfire on public Open Spaces.
