Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council got a High Court injunction yesterday restraining a number of named persons from obstructing the departure and return of vehicles from its depot at Sandyford Industrial Estate, Dublin.
The council had been granted a temporary injunction last week after about 20 people opposing refuse charges protested outside the depot on two days and gardaí were called.
When the case came before the High Court yesterday, six people gave undertakings that they would abide by the temporary order, four people challenged the council's application and leave was given by the court to serve a number of other individuals with notice of the court proceedings.
The injunction granted by the court yesterday is pending the final determination of the proceedings.
In an affidavit, Mr Peter Goodwin, an official with the council's waste management section, said it provided a waste collection service to approximately 65,000 domestic and 860 commercial premises within its area.
On average, 13 refuse freighters were deployed daily throughout the council's administrative area for disposal to landfill.
During 2000, the council introduced a wheelie-bin service on its collection routes and collected and disposed to landfill between 250 and 300 tonnes of waste per day.
Mr Goodwin said the cost of its household waste collection service in 2002 was around €16,981,000. It received an income of around €10,623,1000 for the provision of that service.
Some 73 per cent of households in the council's administrative area had paid the annual service charge or availed of the waiver scheme.
He said there was a risk of nuisance, environmental pollution and unsanitary conditions being generated at and in the vicinity of premises where waste was allowed to accumulate. Some premises, to which the provision of wheelie-bins was not practicable, presented their waste in plastic bags at the front of their premises.
These bags were not always securely tied and were easily damaged by animals and often caused litter problems.