New street cleansing vehicles

The vehicles for council’s Environmental Services department have been ordered and are due to arrive next month.

DUP Councillor Carla Lockhart expressed her disappointment that the decision had been taken not to pursue the introduction of handcarts as it was a system that worked favourably in Dungannon.

She said by having a council employee with a handcart taking responsibility for an area it meant more pride went into that area.

She requested if cleanliness did not improve that the possibility of handcarts be looked at again.

Fellow DUP member Alderman Stephen Moutray pointed out that dog bins not being emptied was a hot topic in Mourneview.

He said it was not good enough for plastic bags to be left at the foot of bins because they were full or overflowing.

He spoke of a system whereby colour coded bags were used so that council employees could see at a glance when bins had been last emptied.

Environmental Services Director Lorraine Crawford said the colour coded bag scheme was out to tender and that vehicles were being tracked to see if bins were being emptied.