Playing a cat-and-mouse game

Sandra Kavanagh was up early for the bin men yesterday, lurking in a parked car at the entrance to Mountview estate, the engine ticking over.

"They normally start their collections there. But this morning, they went past us," she said. "So we chased after them, and cornered them down here."

That was 8.15 a.m., when the game of cat and mouse between Fingal County Council's refuse collectors and anti-bin-charge campaigners began. After stopping her car at the corner of a cul-de-sac at Willow Wood, Kavanagh - from the local Sheepmoor estate - helped to block off the road with a colleague before reinforcements arrived from neighbouring locations.

By lunchtime, more than 30 protesters, mainly women and children, were marching in small circles in front of the lorry, chanting: "No way, we won't pay."

Local Socialist Party councillor Ruth Coppinger told them "not to worry" about giving their names to gardaí. "It doesn't mean you will be summonsed," she said, speaking with the aid of a loudspeaker.

"It's not my name I am worried about. It's my age," cried one of the protesters in reply.

"Can you put down 52? That's all I feel," another women confided to a garda.

The bin men looked on from the lorry cabin, enjoying a rare midday feet-up, while council officials and gardaí mixed with the placards and buggies below.

"We're paying too much for everything else. Why should I pay for this?" asked Sheepmoor resident Carol Barber. "It's impossible not to produce waste. It's a by-product of living. The charge is only €5 at the moment. But it will go up and up."

Similar arguments could be heard at Lohunda Crescent, where a second council lorry had been grounded. Mick Cheevers, a resident of the street who is also a member of the Socialist Party, said householders were being "screwed" despite producing only 1.5 per cent of landfill waste.

Defiant in mood, the protesters said they weren't budging until the council agreed to empty unpaid-for bins.

"We're sticking together, no matter what," said Bridie O'Neill. "If they arrest me I'm taking my bin with me. The two of us can go to Mountjoy because we're not paying."