Dump group may run candidate

A group of North Dublin residents is threatening to run a candidate in the forthcoming byelection, in protest against the continuing operation of the Balleally dump. Ms Rena Condrot, spokeswoman for Lusk Community Council, said people were "very angry and very disillusioned" by Fingal County Council's failure to honour numerous pledges to close the dump. "One loses respect and faith in the Government, the local authority and even the courts when promise after promise is broken," she said.

Yesterday up to 300 local people, including farmers driving tractors, blocked the two main entrances to the dump, claiming that the local authority had pledged to shut it down by December 31st.

However, Mr Danny O'Connor, the county engineer, said "no pledge had been given at any stage" to close the landfill dump, which takes in over a million tonnes of waste a year.

He said that from a practical point of view immediate closure would be impossible, as it would take at least five years before a new dump is operational. "If we did close it now, it would have very serious implications for the whole economy," he said.

The council has already proposed building a recycling facility for construction industry waste at Balleally, and last September it applied to the Environmental Protection Agency for a licence for expansion.

Ms Condrot said the local population is vehemently opposed to such plans. She said people fear that the dump is having a detrimental effect on their health and the environment, particularly the Rogerstown Estuary, which is protected under the 1976 Wildlife Act and is home to up to 20,000 birds during winter.

"We have facilitated the council for 26 years. That's long enough for any one area to take the burden," she said.