The row over Galway's refuse is set to return to the High Court today when Ballinasloe residents will seek to lift an interim injunction preventing them from picketing the landfill site now handling all of the city's and county's rubbish.
The injunction was secured by Ballinasloe Urban District Council last week, following a four-day protest by members of the Ballinasloe Against the Superdump group at Poolboy. The protest prevented access to the site by trucks and resulted in the temporary suspension of refuse collections in Galway.
Mr Gabriel Rohan, chairman of the group, said they would be represented at the hearing. "We will seek to have the injunction lifted and will defend our right to protest," he said. The group is maintaining a presence near the site entrance, having abided by the injunction. However, some 300 supporters staged a protest at last week's meeting of the UDC.
The refuse crisis arose following a recent High Court order to Galway Corporation to close the city's existing dump at Carrowbrowne. As a result, all refuse has been diverted to Poolboy in Ballinasloe. Residents had already expressed opposition to the selection of their landfill site as the interim dump.
Remedial works for Poolboy, promised by the local authorities as part of this strategy, were not carried out due to the sudden Carrowbrowne closure. "The corporation knew that Carrowbrowne needed to be closed, and yet it allowed this situation to develop, which is bad management," Mr Rohan said.
The consultant acting for the two local authorities, M.C. O'Sullivan Ltd, stressed that Poolboy will only be used until December 2005, and has earmarked three potential sites for Galway's superdump after that date. However, it emphasises that the thrust of the waste-management strategy is to reduce dependence on landfill and increase emphasis on recycling.
