Staff shortages are blamed for short notice closures of civic amenity sites

BY DAVID FORSYTHE

MORE staff need to be recruited to ensure the smooth operation of civic amenity sites in West Cork, according to local councillors. The issue was raised in a motion at the recent meeting of the council’s West Cork Municipal District by independent councillor Finbarr Harrington.

The motion requested that: ‘This Council would address the opening and closed hours of the Castletownbere civic amenity site, as it is causing much frustration for both our employees and all the people that use this vital service.’

Cllr Harrington said that a woman from Allihies had driven to the site with her recycling and her children in the car only to discover when she got there that the site was closed. She was unable to do her shopping as a result and was forced to return home with her rubbish. He said that the short-notice closure of the facility was a common occurrence.

‘If it’s a staffing issue, we need to recruit more staff. We need to be encouraging people to use these facilities. For a lot of people it has become part of their weekly routine to come into town, do their recycling and do their shopping. To arrive and find the site closed isn’t good enough. We need to address this in some way,’ he added.

Schull-based councillor Caroline Cronin (FG) said there had been similar issues at the Derryconnell civic amenity site.

‘It has been closed at short notice and then somebody turned up and just left their rubbish outside and then somebody else did the same thing and another and another – creating a whole new problem,’ she said.

Cllr Patrick Gerard Murphy (FF) said that changes to staff organisation was partly to blame. ‘A few years ago some staff were moved from civic amenity sites to litter patrols and it was a retrograde step in my view. The hours are causing headaches for a lot of people, particularly in summertime.’

County mayor Joe Carroll said that in Skibbereen holiday renters usually go home on Saturdays but when they go to the recycling centre to get rid of their rubbish, they find it is closed.

‘People should be able to find out when these sites are open easily. Outdoor staffing numbers are a real issue across the county and facilities should not be closing because people are sick or on holidays. The simple truth is we don’t have enough people,’ he said. In an official response to the motion, Cork County Council said: ‘There have been reduced opening hours frequently over the past number of months at Castletownbere Civic Amenity site (CAS) due to annual leave and sick leave. Health and safety protocols require that there be two persons on site when it is open.

‘Where local assigned staff are not available, management assigns operatives, mainly from the CAS site at Derryconnell. This can impact on opening times at Castletownbere due to travel time. Steps are being taken to ensure availability of cover staff to reduce the risk of closure, having regard to available budgets.

‘The scheduled opening days of the site provide two weekdays and a half day on Saturday, based on usage at the site. Management has no plan to increase these hours and has not sought a budget to do so. This will be kept under review in the light of trends in usage of the service.’