Waste revelationsshow a failure inoversight : DUP

Mr Devenney said the fact the dumping was supervised and authorised under relevant legislation at the time meant it wasn’t ‘secret’ and elected representatives should have been watching more closely.

“There was a failure of oversight by councillors to make it their business to find out what was being dumped in Culmore at that time,” said Mr Devenney.

“What I want to know is: Can the Department of the Environment (DoE) now give us a guarantee that further hazardous waste wasn’t dumped in Culmore up until its closure? I also have concerns about the site at Duncastle Road and at Prehen,” he added.

“I’ll be asking the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) and the Council to carry out an audit of all of these sites, as well as all of the private sites where dumping has taken place around the city.”

Mr Devenney made the comments in the wake of disparate revelations over the last twelve months of both illegal landfilling at the City Industrial Waste and Campsie Sand and Gravel sites near Gorticross; and the dumping of tarry waste around the city.

All of these revelations came as Derry City Council aimed to move away from landfilling entirely in line with EU Directives.