Bin-tax tensions not evident in Mulhuddart

Full wheelie-bins stood outside about one in every four houses, writesTim O'Brien.

If the bin charges dispute was creating tension in north County Dublin, it was not evident in the Corduff and Westway estates near Mulhuddart yesterday.

The area normally described in the media as "sprawling local authority" was serene in the afternoon sunshine. Large swathes of neatly cut grass were virtually litter free and in older parts of the housing scheme leafy cul-de sacs featured not stranded bin lorries, but residents clipping shrubs. This is the area which has not had a bin collection service for four weeks and while few wanted to be quoted and named to the vociferous "anti-bin campaigners", many were pleased with Fingal County Council's announcement yesterday that they would open an industrial unit in Coolmine to which residents could bring their bags.

Full wheelie-bins stood outside about one in every four houses. In a far-flung corner stood a few full wheelie-bins clustered together. Someone had left a black sack at the base and it had been ripped by dogs and birds. One resident told The Irish Times that she had paid her bin charge and had four week's of black plastic sacks in her garage.

It was not possible for everyone to bring the bins several miles, particularly pregnant mothers who would be sickened by the smells.

The Army would have to be brought in to clear the "stockpile", she maintained. But an elderly man caring for his garden commented that "waste can be minimised if people reduced and composted anyway". A woman on the same street welcomed the council's decision to open the Coolmine unit and said most people wouldn't have great difficulty taking their waste there.

Ms Emer Coleman, communications officer for Fingal County Council, said more than 80 per cent of their 65,000 households were compliant. Some 4,500 households in the "core" Corduff/Westway/Mulhuddart and Hartstown areas were still having difficulties with bin lorries getting through, but even there she said up to 90 per cent of households had paid.

Fingal County Council would, she said, continue to send the bin lorries out. Earlier yesterday, Dublin City Council responding to the barricading of a bin lorry in the Cloonlara estate in Finglas, said there was no part of the city council's administrative area where the bins have missed a collection for four weeks.

At Cloonlara a group of anti bin-tax protesters staged a now symbolic protest, blockading a lorry for about two hours, before allowing it to collect their rubbish. A city council spokeswoman pointed out that the council has actually lifted its "non-collection for non-payment" regime in the entire north city area. The council said it was proceeding with the non-collection for non-payment in Derravaragh estate in Crumlin, as well as all of Dublin 2, 4, and 6.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and South Dublin county councils are also continuing to implement a ban on the collection of refuse from households which have refused to pay.