PURE Press Release January 2009

The after Christmas period was a very busy period for both PURE and Wicklow County Council.  Wicklow County Council was inundated by calls/reports in relation to illegal dumping at the regional bottles banks.  Worse affected were areas in Dunlavin, Newtown and Tinahely.  In the past these amenity sites have been affected by people leaving bags of domestic rubbish, but over the Christmas period people dumped mattresses, furniture and other household rubbish.  Over 1.5 tonnes of dumping was removed from the Newtown amenity site and local residents and visitors to the area were appalled by the scale of dumping that occurred.

The PURE truck was also extremely busy after the Christmas break with close to 70 collections in the first week with approximately 20 tonnes of illegal dumping removed from the Wicklow Upland/Mountains.  Ian Davis Project Manager of PURE stated that,

‘We were getting a lot of calls just before Christmas and they continued throughout the holidays.  Some people use this period as a clean-out time and they seem to thing nothing of dumping their unwanted goods in the mountains.’

It was recently announced that PURE would receive funding for a further three year period from the Department of Environment Heritage and Local Government.  Although Minister Gormley acknowledged that the partnership project was a success, he also stressed that, ‘while progress has clearly been made, there is no room for complacency’. 

The PURE Project also recently announced that Fáilte Ireland had recently joined as stakeholders in the project. 

In relation to both announcements Ian Davis added, ‘the Minister’s commitment in continuing the funding for PURE is an acknowledgement that the project works and insures that we can continue for a further three years.  The recent inclusion of Fáilte Ireland to the project demonstrates the benefits PURE brings to both the people who live and recreate in the upland areas and to the many thousands of tourist who visit the region each year.’  PURE continue to urge the public to report dumpers and dumping to lo-call 1850 365 121