The bin struggle continues

national | bin tax / household tax / water tax | opinion/analysis

Thursday July 28, 2005 15:34

by John McDermott - removefiannafail

jmcd444 at yahoo dot co dot uk

Spain

Low intensity warfare &civil disobedience

A little publicity in todays papers for the 'battle of the bins'

Kicking up a stink.!

It seems the 'Liberties' Dublins oldest enclave is fighting back vigorously in 'The battle of the bins'. A kind of guerilla warfare continues unabated here.A cat and mouse game continues in which ' black sack ' partisans lie in wait for the binmen in every alleyway-some of them stinking to the high heavens.! Dublin City Council yesterday admitted the problem ,and have been rounding them up after complaints from the law abiding citizens.They said 'while we are doing our best to go around and pick up these wastebags after the bin collections, we could cannot patrol every area.
The city is split into those who use microchipped wheelie bins - where the householder is charged every time the bin is left out and picked up - and those who leave out black sacks, paying €2.50 per bag tag.Many of the flats in the locality are unsuiteded to the black bin system.
According to the council, 120,000 households are on the wheelie bin system while 20,000 use black sacks.
Bag collection is confined to areas of Dublin 8, Dublin 1, Dublin 3 and Dublin 7 - in effect, the older and most built-up parts of the city, where apartment dwelling makes wheelie bins an impossibility.The new Lord Mayor Catherine Byrne is from inchicore, Dublin 8 and has had numerous calls about the problem. A spokesperson for Dublin City Council said that litter wardens were busily sifting through the putrid rubbish bags to find evidence of who left them and attempt to prosecute them. Can't be to many applicants for that job. My stance on the bin taxes/new layer of double taxation is unequivocal. Wheras I cannot condone breaking the law, my best wishes to those who carry on the struggle to have this iniquitous burden which is the forerunner of privatization of essential services and more profiteering by 'friends of Fianna Fail'