Festive fly-tippers blight borough's roadsides

Officials at Mossley Mill issued the warning this week following a spate of fly-tipping incidents around the borough over the Christmas and New Year period.

Officers from the council's Cleansing Section are currently investigating several reports of fly-tipping over the festive holidays, including incidents where cardboard boxes, Christmas gift wrapping and bags of household waste were dumped at roadsides near Ballyclare, Ballyeaston and Ballyduff.

"The material is examined and where possible the person responsible identified. A fixed penalty notice is issued which carries a penalty of 50 - failure to pay results in the person responsible being taken to court, where a maximum fine of 2,500 could be imposed," a council spokesperson explained.

Stressing that those responsible could have used the waste disposal facilities at Bruslee, which was only closed Christmas Day and Boxing Day, she appealed for anyone with information about the illegal dumping to contact the council on 9034 0160.

DUP alderman Nigel Hamilton, who received several complaints about fly-tipping from ratepayers over the holiday period, hit out at those responsible for leaving some rural roads in a complete mess.

"I trust that anyone who sees this sort of thing being done reports it to the council. It makes a laughing stock out of those parents who give Christmas gifts and toys to their children on Christmas Day and dump the wrapping and boxes on lonely lanes in the countryside. Shame on them. They have completely lost their sense of civic responsibility and deserve to be fined for discarding their Christmas debris in the laneways and roadsides of the borough.

"There is no excuse for this irresponsible behaviour; it simply adds to the waste collection bill the ratepayer has to stump up for," he said.

Meanwhile, the council's Christmas tree recycling service will be available at Bruslee this Friday and Saturday (January 8 and 9) between 10am and 4pm.

Trees will be chipped and taken to the council's composting facility where they will be turned into compost along with the rest of the borough's brown bin waste.