An elderly landowner was spared a waste management conviction on January 17th at Carrick on Suir District Court on the provision he paid €3000 to the Local Authority’s clean-up costs.
Waterford City and County Council took a prosecution against the landowner for facilitating the unauthorised management of construction and demolition waste and soil in a protected area adjacent to the River Suir near Carrick on Suir.
Niall Kane, Senior Executive Engineer with Waterford City and County Council outlined to Judge Brian O’Shea that construction and demolition waste had been dumped on the land which forms part of the Lower River Suir Special Area of Conservation prior to July 2022.
The landowner for the land in question could not be traced, and the land appeared to be abandoned. However, in August 2022, an adjoining landowner paid a contractor to form an entrance ramp to the land with the waste material to provide an additional access to his adjoining land.
Subsequent to this, Waterford City and County Council undertook a clean-up operation, removing the construction and demolition waste to restore the area to its previous condition.
The adjoining landowner pled guilty to the offence under section 32 of the Waste Management Act, but Judge O’Shea, noting that the defendant had not previously been before the courts, said he would apply the probation act to the landowner and spare him a conviction if he contributed €3,000 to the council’s clean-up costs.
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