Sligo has country’s highest bin charges

national | bin tax / household tax / water tax | news report

Wednesday September 24, 2003 09:36

by Allen - LP

MANY householders in Sligo have the unenviable distinction of paying the highest bin charges in the country, according to a national survey published last week. (thanks to SF and FF)

While protests continue in parts of Dublin over having to pay as little as E154 a year, they should count themselves very lucky. There are people in Sligo paying E520 a year for the same service.
Since the privatisation of the refuse collection service there are now a range of charges throughout Sligo town and county, with a number of different operators.
It is true that in many areas the recycling facilities now available do give people the option of cutting down on their bin collection charges if they are in an area where payment is on a per bag basis.
However, there are still people who only have the option of a fixed wheelie bin charge and this costs over E500 a year.
Also where bags are available many families, particularly if they are not into recycling, are buying the large wheelie bin bag on a weekly basis. These cost in the region of E8-E10, so that amounts in a year to E400-E500.
Charges are also high in Leitrim with an annual charge for a 240 litre bin.
However, in other neighbouring counties bin services are substantially cheaper.
In Mayo, there is an annual cost of E320 for a 240 litre bin, while in Roscommon collectors charge around E375 for the same size bin. In Donegal you will pay an annual charge of about E300 for a 240 litre bin and there is the option of buying smaller bags, costing less than E4.
Dublin city has the country’s lowest annual charge at E154 for a 240 litre bin.
In other areas of Dublin annual charges range from E195 to about E250.
Aside from Leitrim, only in Carlow, Kilkenny and Westmeath do householders have to pay over E400 in the year.
Elsewhere, they range from as low as E270 for the 240 litre bin in Louth to an average of about E350.
The fact that Sligo does not have its own landfill dump and the refuse collectors have to transport all rubbish collected in the county to Mayo does obviously add to the Sligo costs.

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Comments (10 of 10)

Just shows you

by Precision Man

Wed Sep 24, 2003 10:24

That's what will happen if the council succeed in implementing this unjust tax. They will sell off the service, the charges will go sky high, they will lay off workers to maximise profit, and the service will deteriorate further.

However, if we succeed in stopping these charges in Dublin they will have to be abolished elsewhere, and the people in those other areas will benefit.

My point exactly.

Litter problems

by Question

Wed Sep 24, 2003 11:19

What contribution does the bin tax make towards eradicating the litter problem? Is Sligo a cleaner town than other areas with less bin tax? If the bin tax does not contribute towards cleaning cities up, what does?

How do we get clean cities without paying for it? I would be more than happy to pay higher taxes if it meant things would be cleaner.

Large refuse charges can only increase litter

by Terry

Wed Sep 24, 2003 11:57

The higher the charges the greater the incentive for people to just dump the rubbish anywhere, especially if you can hardly afford it. I would say the litter problem has increased.

Worse litter

by Mags - WCA

Wed Sep 24, 2003 12:18

It is various totally unaccountable private refuse 'services' which have been turning the Wicklow mountains into an open sewer in the past few years. It should be quite clear to the powers that be that the private services exist to maximise profits for their owners and if they can get away without having to pay for the actual deposit of the refuse in approved landfill or incineration sites quite obviously they will. Thus the dumping of dangerous materials (medical and hospital waste, etc.) in fields around Wicklow. Wicklow is the only place that has been publicised for this activity, it could be widespread in other counties too, for all I know.

Higher charge ?

by Q

Wed Sep 24, 2003 12:19

Is this true. How do we keep our country clean if we do not pay for it to be cleaned ? Do people really throw their rubbish everywhere because they do not want to pay to have it properly disposed of. Sometimes taxes are good. I don't know in this case this is why I ask. But I do not agree that throwing your rubbish every where is a good protest what do you expect to be done ? That is just stupid. And selfish.

re: Q

by Joe

Wed Sep 24, 2003 12:28

1. No one is 'throwing their rubbish everywhere', in fact the campaign is demanding that ALL rubbish be collected and disposed of.

2. Of course local services have to be paid for. The campaigns are arguing that workers already pay for them through PAYE and that additional revenue should come from taxing the rich and corporations. Taxation rates are far too low for this crowd.

Cheek!

by Markie

Wed Sep 24, 2003 15:05

The cheek of the Labour Party going on about how Sinn Fein voted for bin charges in Sligo. Remind us again of the the number of local authorities where Labour councillors voted for them?

Labour cheek

by Janus

Wed Sep 24, 2003 15:24

Especially as the Shinners only voted for them once in return for the charge not going up that year and McManus being elected Mayor. As far as I know since then, and this was at least three years ago, they've voted against them the whole time.

I am open to correction on this as it was a Shinner who told me.

Labour have voted for the charges in Dublin, Cork and Waterford. They don't get to go round attacking other people, especially when Rabbitte said this yesterday:

"He would be better employed on the position of his own party in relation to issues like respect for the rule of law. I have never advocated non-payment of legal charges, I do not advocate the blockading of housing estates or illegal interfering with local authority vehicles, and I do not support the tactics employed in this protest," said Mr Rabbitte.

This position was made clear by Mr Rabbitte in an interview with the Waterford local radio station, WLR, yesterday morning, broadcast before Mr O'Donoghue's attack was launched.

Local authorities had legally imposed service charges from the 1980s, even though he acknowledged that Labour councillors in Dublin voted against them, said Mr Rabbitte.

Accepting the logic of service charges, he went on: "There was indeed a time when the PAYE worker was so heavily penalised in terms of carrying tax burden that people objected to additional charges at that time.

"The situation has changed dramatically. Taxes have been seriously reduced.

"I don't like the manner in which some of those decisions have been taken because they benefit the highest earners rather than concentrating from the bottom-up. But having said that, you can't argue that the tax burden has not been reduced with any comparison in Europe," he said, while the European Union's "polluter pays" principle equally justifies the charges.

"There are more and more households that understand that we can't go on producing and disposing waste in the fashion that we did, that we have to bring in measures that are designed to reduce and minimise waste."

Isn't that basically supporting the bin charges?

Cheek

Wed Sep 24, 2003 15:51

SF in Sligo voted for the charges in return for a go at being Mayor. Now that's fairly disgusting behaviour.

They have since voted to increase them in Sligo. More disgusting behaviour.

That still has nothing on Labour who voted for them... all over the place.

The likes of the SP and Finian McGrath and anyone else who consistently opposed the charges are entitled to have a go at SF over what they did in Sligo, I suppose. Labour sure as fuck are not entitled to do any such thing.

Isn't it reduce quantity of waste the target?

by Peter

Wed Feb 05, 2014 19:09

What about ppl who already reduced the quantity and stopped buying over packed products ?
who reduced the normal waist to 4 bins a year?
Who deliver all recyclable materials to recycling points twice a year,
who do compost all at their back garden?

The cost of this for such family may be as low as 50 € a year,
Now all this progressing education on all family member is completely waisted as lowest price for same now will be about 170 € a year minimum, with 3 general waist bins and few recyclable ones.
And those who don't care about quality or quantity will be paying maximum 275 €.

Same with lonely ppl living in a house?
What if they produce very low quantity of waist?

This is insane.

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Sligo has country’s highest bin charges

Comments (10 of 10)