400% price rise plan in `superdump' row

Local authorities in Co Wicklow have announced plans to increase the cost of domestic refuse collection by up to 400 per cent.

The move is the latest in a long-running disagreement between the Wicklow county manager, Mr Blaise Treacy, and most of the councillors over the creation of a "superdump" at Ballynagran, outside Rathnew.

Over the past four years Mr Treacy had continued the compulsory purchase of land for the 323-acre dump, maintaining that he had the authority to overrule the council on the issue.

However, earlier this year the High Court ruled that the creation of the dump was a material contravention of the development plan - and as such was a matter to be decided by the elected councillors, not Mr Treacy.

Mr Treacy responded by suspending commercial refuse collection throughout the county, arguing that the county's existing dump at Ballymurtagh was nearing capacity. Local authorities have a statutory obligation to collect domestic but not commercial refuse.

Now Bray Urban District Council has announced planned domestic refuse charge increases of up to 400 per cent or £180 a year, while Wicklow County Council has announced similar plans for the Greystones area, meaning increases of 300 per cent to £206 a year. Proposals for the increases are contained in the financial estimates for the coming year which the councils are debating.

According to the councils, the increases are necessary to pay for 11th-hour measures to introduce waste minimisation and reduction projects. Provision is also made in the estimates for hiring staff to oversee the introduction of the measures.

However, members of the local authorities have reacted angrily to the inclusion of the figures in the estimates. A Wicklow Fianna Fail TD, Mr Dick Roche, who has campaigned against the proposed Ballynagran dump, said he would not be intimidated by the proposal.

Mr Roche said councillors should bear in mind that the adoption of the financial estimates was a matter for them to decide and he questioned the role of the local authority in spending almost £1 million on the Ballynagran dump, "when the council has now voted on three separate occasions to drop the proposal".

He said the row had "touched on the very fundamental aspect of who runs a county" and raised questions about the democratic process.