Anti-bin charge protesters to resume action

The anti-bin charge protests, which disrupted waste-collection services to thousands of Dublin householders this year, are set to resume in the new year, campaigners have warned.

Protesters said there will be a "high level of activism" and "huge protests" if councils attempt to renew their policy of not collecting bins from households which have not paid their refuse charges.

The recent announcement that Dublin City Council waste charges are to increase by more than 23 per cent will provoke more people to resist paying, Ms Bríd Smith, spokeswoman of the Dublin City Bin Tax campaign said.

"We intend to resist any attempt at non-collection of bins. It depends on what the council does, but if they try to implement it in the new year, they will see protests and a high level of activism."

The increases will mean that the charge for a 240-litre bin in the city will rise from €154 to €195, while the charge for a 140-litre bin will rise from €90 to €110. However, Mr Smith said, this was only the tip of the iceberg.

"The city manager has said he needs a 100 per cent increase in the charge, this is just the start of it. People are going to resist the 23 per cent increase. The council can expect a backlash."

A spokesman for Dublin City Council said it would be "pursuing all methods" at its disposal to compel householders to pay the charge.

Mr Matt Twomey, the assistant city manager, said: "People who have not complied know the ways we have of making them comply. We have sent out final notices pointing out the court remedies we have and the new power granted to us this year of non-collection of waste."

There was no truth in the suggestion that the council feared the protesters' backlash if it implemented non-collection, Mr Twomey added.

"The law hasn't changed, so the same situation will apply going forward. People have to pay the charge they are billed for. The majority of people do, but for those who don't they will either face the courts or won't have bins collected. But it's not what we want, all we want to do is provide a service."

South Dublin County Council said the 15,000 to 16,000 householders in its area who had not paid up would not have their bins collected in the new year.

Mr Garry Keogh, a senior executive officer with the council, said the council has "backed off" from this policy in the last number of weeks because it was moving over from an flat annual rate to a €6 pay-by-bin charge, but it would extend non-collection to all untagged bins in the new year.

Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council imposes the highest charge in the county with a flat rate of €275 a year, due for review in the new year. The council would not collect the bins of non-payers, a spokeswoman said.

Fingal County Council, which has the lowest rate in Dublin at €5 a bin, was the first area targeted by the protesters last September. Now, a council spokeswoman said, it had an "almost 100 per cent compliance" and would not be increasing it for 2004.

She said there were no outstanding legal matters arising from the activities of the anti-bin tax campaigners. However campaign leaders, Cllr Clare Daly and Socialist Party TD Mr Joe Higgins, who were jailed during the protests, did have outstanding legal costs in the region of €30,000 to be paid to Fingal County Council.

The anti-bin tax campaign would be taking a "political direction" in the new year, Mr Higgins said, in preparation for the local elections.

"If non-collection is imposed there will be widespread protests and widespread involvement of residents in their own communities. Opposition will be vigorous and on-going. The new dimension will be a political direction. Ordinary working people will use these elections to protest against this particular stealth tax."