Council Centres Need To Re-open Says Trainor.
SDLP Councillor John Trainor has called for the safe reopening of Household Recycling Centres across Newry Mourne and Down following an increase in fly tipping reports across the district.
Cllr Trainor said: “We are working to ensure our ten household recycling centres across Newry Mourne and Down District Council reopen in a safe manner.
“The closures affected all council centres across the North due to a directive from the NI Executive as they were not included on the list of essential services. Currently skips at our centres cannot be emptied as the company we use are not operating as they are classed as a ‘non-essential service’.
“We recognise the urgency of calls to reopen due to the increase in reports of fly tipping. In order to do this in a safe and sensible manner, we have called on the NI Executive to review its decision and recategorise HRC’s as essential services.
“We are liaising with other party leaders and the Council’s senior management team and have asked for a paper next Wednesday on ways to reopen. We are also working with SDLP colleagues across the North and we are all of the opinion to push to get the service deemed as essential which will allow us to reopen safely and have skips emptied.”
“We support a practical approach that will see our HRC’s open and available to the public, but we must ensure social distancing is in place and services are operating to empty skips as they fill up on our sites.
“While many will be using the current period as an opportunity to spring clean their home or do some gardening, we are reminding people that there is no excuse for fly tipping.
“Not only is the removal of this waste costly to the ratepayer, it also takes focus away from delivering our core services at this very challenging time.”
