Cllr Andrew Duncan has spoken of his hopes of prosecuting fly-tippers within Westmeath, after it was revealed that Westmeath County Council failed to prosecute anybody for illegal dumping since 2022.
Figures, which were reported in the Irish Independent following a Freedom of Information request, displayed the revelation that since 2022 and up until the conclusion of July, 2024, no illegal dumping prosecution had been enacted by local authority organisations in Westmeath.
That is despite there being over 1,300 suspected cases of fly-tipping in the county that had been recorded and investigated with over 1,000 of those episodes lodged within the Mullingar-Kinnegad Municipal District alone.
Cllr Duncan told Topic that there was a “reluctance to go to court” as the criteria to prove absolute guilt was “pretty onerous.”
on-the-spot fines
He said: “What they (Westmeath County Council) did instead was that they used to issue on-the-spot fines but I think that might change now if the criteria that they have in terms of bringing the prosecution is different. I will desperately be pushing for prosecutions and the naming and shaming (of offenders).
“Ultimately, it is an environmental matter that goes back to the environmental department and it will be up to the likes of the environment section to bring a successful prosecution, but the bringing of a successful prosecution is not easy.
“I know that they had not much luck when they brought people to courts before but I would be totally in favour of the fullest possible measures of anybody who throws out rubbish and is fly-tipping.”
Cllr Duncan acknowledged that the issue of fly-tipping in Westmeath was one of the most talked about issues discussed at Westmeath County Council, but was hopeful that prosecutions will occur int the future.
He said: “It is a small bunch of people but they do it very regularly and in the same places with the same sort of stuff. I think there is some very busy people dumping regularly who need to be prosecuted and I hope that there is a prosecution in the near future.
“If you have anybody on CCTV walking in and then they walk out without the bag, you don’t actually have anything so it is very hard to get actual evidence. To actually prove it in court is a fairly stiff process and needs a cast-iron case.
“There is an awful lot more cameras and they will catch people in the act and when they do, they will prosecute them.”
