Waste from Co Sligo will now be disposed of at a landfill site near Ballina, Co Mayo.
The acting county secretary for Mayo, Mr Gilbert Grourke, confirmed yesterday that from February 1st the council must be prepared to accept Sligo waste. "Under the Connacht Waste Management Plan, adopted by Mayo County Council at the end of last year, we are forced to accept the Sligo waste," he said.
The Sligo waste will be taken to the Rathroeen dump near Ballina. According to Mayo Fianna Fail councillor Mr Gerry Murray, who voted against his party on the waste management plan, this was the first major implication of the plan adopted by Mayo County Council in November.
"The irony here is that Mayo County Council has been one of the most responsible local authorities nationally in planning and managing its waste requirements," he said.
"While many local authorities are at present in a crisis over landfill availability, the Mayo authority is forced to take on Sligo's lack of responsibility in forward planning in this area." Under the plan, Mayo was allowed two landfill sites, Cllr Murray said. One was the EPA-licensed facility outside Newport and the other was at Rathroeen. These sites could accommodate Mayo's waste for the next five years but with the additional waste from Sligo being diverted to the Ballina site that timescale was seriously reduced.
Mayo County Council has applied to the EPA for a licence for the Rathroeen landfill facility but so far it has not been granted, he said.