MORE THAN 100 cases involving non payment of water charges will be heard next Wednesday at Swords District Court, Co Dublin. They are the first of hundreds of cases to be heard this month, according to the Federation of Dublin Anti Water Charges Campaign (FDAWCC).
Cllr Joe Higgins, the campaign chairman, said yesterday that the FDAWCC is gearing up for a major push to "finish off" the water charges in Dublin and other local service charges throughout the country.
Cllr Higgins said Fingal and South Dublin County Council had been engaged in a "cynical" attempt to "shake down" as much money as they could by sending out civil process summonses.
However, 400 Fingal householders were going to fight their cases on four separate days in November, beginning on Wednesday.
"With an average of 100 cases a day being contested the court system can't cope with this level of opposition. Whatever the judgement of the courts, the householders concerned will continue to oppose this double taxation," said Cllr Higgins.
The Supreme Court appeal of the disconnection legislation by South County Dublin had been due to go ahead today but, according to FDAWCC, was postponed until November 15th because no court space was available.
Cllr Higgins said that 15,000 Dublin households had paid the £2 subscription fee to the campaign. A series of well attended public meetings had been held and others are planned over the next few weeks.
He called for an emergency provision of £55 million for next year to fund the councils in lieu of water charges. Estimates meetings of county councils, beginning with South Dublin County Council on November 13th, will also be picketed.
He said the meetings "act as a warning to politicians that they will ignore this at their peril with a general election coming".