Athy area is 'a wreck' due to illegal dumping

ILLEGAL dumping on a lane in Athy town centre has been described as an ongoing problem that has worsened in recent months, according to Athy Tidy Towns.

The area along Meeting Lane has been taken over by bags upon bags of rubbish in recent months, mostly containing household waste.

Chairperson of Athy Tidy Towns, Ger Kelly, who has raised the issue with council officials, said he is “well aware” of the dumping at the location and has discussed it with Kildare County Council.

He said uncertainty over land ownership may be complicating efforts to address the problem.

“It's seemingly private property,” he said, adding that “no one seems to know who owns it.” According to Ger, the council may be reluctant to intervene because of the site’s status.

“I think it's something for the environmental section to look at, and try and sort out,” he said.

He described the dumping as a long-running issue that had previously been cleared but has since returned.

“That has been an ongoing problem for years,” he said. “I remember that was all cleaned up, definitely, well over a year ago, but it's as bad as ever again.” 

Ger said the accumulation of waste is significant and called the area a “wreck”.

He added that the situation has deteriorated over time, saying it has been present for longer than a month and continues to worsen.

“It's getting worse every day,” said Ger, adding that it “has escalated over the last couple of months.” 

“In this day and age, we shouldn't be having that at all.” 

Efforts are reportedly ongoing to determine ownership of the land in order to enable action to be taken.

“I know they're trying to sort out something to see who is the owner of it,” he said, describing the site as “a no man's land situation”. 

While dumping in the area has remained persistent, Ger highlighted other improvements across Athy, including vast improvements on the problem of dog fouling on the streets and dumping at the bottle bank on Edmund Rice Square – all thanks to the new dog waste bins on the Athy Southern Distributor Road and the CCTV cameras installed at the bottle bank.

Kildare County Council has been contacted for comment but had not replied at the time of going to print.