Council claim breach of planning
THE operator of bin compacting company BIGbin is in dispute with Limerick County Council, alleging that red tape is preventing job creation. However, Limerick County Council insist they are simply following protocol. An angry John O’Connor, owner of The BIGbin company which operates three compactors in Limerick, told the Limerick Post that he was informed by council to remove one compactor in the Raheen area.
However, he points out that city council has not objected to his compactors at Moyross and Roxboro’.
“Recently, we were advised by the EPA that we were going to get planning exempt throughout Ireland.
“Limerick County Council has decided that they don’t like our bins. We are afraid that their decision might set a precedent.
“All of our operations are above board, and we have secured all of the necessary licenses”.
He expressed the view that a lot of the time, red tape and licenses stop job creation.
“We were going to introduce an extra 15 bins in Limerick, Kerry and Clare, which would have created more jobs.
“We had placed a large order for 48 bins, that we have subsequently had to cancel, until the planning exemption gets through”.
Gerry Behan, Limerick County Council, said that they objected to the bin compactors because of a simple breach of planning regulations.
“Planning regulations state that domestic waste has to be segregated between organic and recyclable.
“According to the Planning and Development Act 2000, it has to be 4.5 cubic metres, and each compactor is eight cubic metres.
“It simply does not qualify from the point of view of planning.
“The whole trust of European and government policy is segregation of waste, and our understanding is that these compactors don’t distinguish between the two.
“It isn’t a question of hounding them, it is simply a question of interpreting the law of the land”.
