Residents welcome clean up of illegal dump in Cork city

Residents of a Cork suburb have welcomed the decision by Cork City Council to clean-up an illegal dump which they say was having an adverse effect on the local environment and human health.

Noreen Murphy from Ballyvolane has welcomed the clean-up operation of the site at Ellis's Yard which has seen all sorts of illegal dumping take place over the last two decades or so with everything from domestic waste, builder's rubble, electrical items, furniture and tyres being dumped at the site.

“We welcome the fact that Cork City Council has finally started on this clean up that we have been campaigning for years to happen - from talking to people involved in the work, it’s going to take a week to clean up the site but it’s long overdue,” said Ms Murphy.

Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Environment as well as Cork City Council were present this morning when contract staff using heavy machinery and a huge skip lorry began tackling the waste which covers a site almost the size of a GAA pitch.

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“This is a serious environmental issue and it’s been a long time coming but it looks as if the authorities are finally taking their responsibilities seriously so we welcome that - they had pest control people in there as well which is welcome given the rats and flies that were down there,” she said.

Ms Murphy said that she would now be writing to Cork City Council to see if they would put in air quality monitors at the site as she and others have expressed concern about toxic fumes being released from the site following over 90 fires there last year.

It’s understood that Cork City Council plans to improve security at the site with the erection of further fencing as well as the installation of CCTV cameras to deter anyone from fly-tipping or other dumping given the site’s proximity the nearby North Ring Road.

The move by Cork City Council comes just weeks after Ballyvolane residents asked Ireland Midlands North West MEP Luke Ming Flanagan to table a question in the European Parliament on the illegal dump at Ellis's Yard and the threat it poses to human health.

Mr Flanagan in his question to the European Parliament for written reply pointed out that the illegal dump at Ellis's Yard in Ballyvolane has been in operation for over two decades but that it has grown in the past year as more people are using it to fly-tip their rubbish.

Ms Murphy said that residents had asked Mr Flanagan to ask the European Commission to investigate whether the Irish authorities, local and national, are in breach of either EU Environment legislation or EU Public Safety legislation by failing to clean up the illegal dump at Ellis's Yard.