County Limerick residents forced to sign up to refuse collection service

ruthmc

Does anyone else think this is totally wrong?? I recycle most of my waste and only have a small bag of rubbish to be collected every two weeks which a neighbour allows me to put in with their bins. I don't think I am doing anything illegal here, am I?? Yet according to the story on the front page of the Limerick Leader last week, if I don't sign up for a licensed refuse service in 2012 I can face an on the spot fine of €60 or €1905 if prosecuted in court.

I've been looking at various services available and the cheapest I have come across seems to be Mr Bigbin where I can drop a binbag and half binbag of rubbish for only €4.50 as often as I need with no other charges. However, I wonder if this is classed as a 'licensed refuse service'? (Sorry this post is so long but I am amazed that people can be forced to pay for a service that they may not want!! And please note I am not in any way encouragaing illegal dumping of rubbish). If anyone has any ideas of how to go about objecting to this I'd love to hear them

You can read article here http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/county_limerick_residents_warned_they_must_sign_up_to_refuse_collection_service_1_3190218

the drifter

im in the county. I share a bin with my parents and the bin is registered to there house. If they think they can force me to sign up for a refuse collection service for 1 bin bag a week....well...ill tell them where they can shove there one bin bag.

bullets

There is a form you can fill in to register or to apply yourself as exempt.

you are then responsible for disposing your own rubbish via landfill or recycling
yourself. Its something thats been about a while. I just dont know what
the form is called.

(Not sure if it still exists or not heard about it a few years ago but never went looking into
in to it)

~B

Mr E

Punish the law-abiding, bill paying people to deal with littering scumbags? Yeah that's fair.

If people can prove that they pay for a bin service, they shouldn't have to pay this.

I recycle everything I can and put out my bins once a month. If they think I'm paying a surcharge for being a responsible citizen, they can go jump.

Edit: I just read bullets' post. Thank god for that.

skyguy19

if you are sharing with someone you are ok, that law is in Limerick city a while now but its not policed but I asked the city hall about it and they said once you are sharing with someone its ok, I pay for the service in my mothers house and use her bin as I only had 1 bag every 2-3 weeks and there is no bin service in my address.

steveon

skyguy19 wrote: »

if you are sharing with someone you are ok, that law is in Limerick city a while now but its not policed but I asked the city hall about it and they said once you are sharing with someone its ok, I pay for the service in my mothers house and use her bin as I only had 1 bag every 2-3 weeks and there is no bin service in my address.

Exactly in the same situation myself 90% of my rubbish is recycled and the rest is dumped responsibly in my parents bin approx 1 bag every 4weeks, Its about time they went after the people who just toss there rubbish out beside other peoples wheelie bin hoping the refuge company will take it..

I for one am not paying twice...I pay enough taxes.

Kess73

I use the Big bin service which suits me just fine.

I have kept every ticket I bought since I started using it earlier this year so I have a track record of dumping my rubbish legally.

I sure as hell am not going to be bullied into signing up with some overpriced refuse collector when I have been dumping my rubbish legally, and using bottle banks etc for my recycling needs.


Total joke if they try to force law abiding people into signing up for services that they are already paying for elsewhere.

steveon

Kess73 wrote: »

I use the Big bin service which suits me just fine.

I have kept every ticket I bought since I started using it earlier this year so I have a track record of dumping my rubbish legally.

I sure as hell am not going to be bullied into signing up with some overpriced refuse collector when I have been dumping my rubbish legally, and using bottle banks etc for my recycling needs.


Total joke if they try to force law abiding people into signing up for services that they are already paying for elsewhere.

Too rite thats probably why they refused that crowd permission to erect more locations and create jobs by operating a service at a fairly reasonable amount.

mgbgt1978

Wasn't it Limerick County Council that forced the BigBin operation to remove their service from the Co-op shop in Raheen (something to do with the law regarding "separation of waste")
The others are all within the city boundary as far as I am aware.

Now that they have eliminated the only cheap option for the "occasional" user, they want us to pay through the nose to keep Mr. Binman, etc afloat ????

phog

Kess73 wrote: »

I use the Big bin service which suits me just fine.

I have kept every ticket I bought since I started using it earlier this year so I have a track record of dumping my rubbish legally.

I sure as hell am not going to be bullied into signing up with some overpriced refuse collector when I have been dumping my rubbish legally, and using bottle banks etc for my recycling needs.


Total joke if they try to force law abiding people into signing up for services that they are already paying for elsewhere.

Do you know can you claim for these receipts on your PAYE?

LK_Dave

Great more charges on top of property/water and septic tank charges for 2012!!:mad:

How can you find these collection service routes and know if you are 200 meters from them?

Kess73

phog wrote: »

Do you know can you claim for these receipts on your PAYE?

No idea. I would hazard a guess that if you wanted to do that you would have to ask the shop to print you on a proper VAT receipt from the till.

phog

Kess73 wrote: »

No idea. I would hazard a guess that if you wanted to do that you would have to ask the shop to print you on a proper VAT receipt from the till.

But it's not VAT that you're claiming for it's Tax Relief on Service Charges.

boomerang

I'm totally with ye, if this new rule is enforced I'll go to court before I'd pay a fine for non-compliance.

I save practically everything for recycling; food waste etc. goes into the compost bin. I only need to use the bigbin service in Roxboro about once a month. I pay the entrance fee into the civic amenity centre in Mungret as needed.

How the feck is forcing me to sign up to a collection service I don't need and definitely can't afford going to stop people from burning their rubbish or dumping it out of their cars?

fl4pj4ck

Kess73 wrote: »

No idea. I would hazard a guess that if you wanted to do that you would have to ask the shop to print you on a proper VAT receipt from the till.

-> http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/credits/service-charges.html

Kess73

phog wrote: »

But it's not VAT that you're claiming for it's Tax Relief on Service Charges.

I know it is not for claiming for VAT, but the tickets for the machine have no price on them, so you would need the standard till receipt to prove you were paying for something in order to try for tax relief.


The link that fl4pj4ck put up seems to suggest the answer is no, although it might do no harm to give the revenue office a call just in case.

ruthmc

Thanks for all the replies everyone, it's good to have some support out there! I came across a document on Limerick County Council's website titled Litter Management Plan 2011-2014. It can be downloaded at http://www.lcc.ie/Environment/Litter_Pollution/Litter_Management_Plan/

Page 12 states: Householders may share bins with neighbours/relatives. The Council can request written confirmation of such arrangements.

Page 2 contains a message from the Cathaoirleach of the Council:
"It is appreciated that some elderly persons, for example, might bin-share with family/neighbours and this is taken into account in the Bye-Laws. What is not acceptable, however, is the large number of households who refuse to pay for a service and dispose of their waste by illegal dumping or unauthorised burning."

The statement on Page 12 above is referring to draft bye-laws so I would still like to confirm that this hasn't been changed since this document was written. I'll post again when I find out more!

ruthmc

I rang Limerick County Council and it was confirmed to me that it is ok to share bin collection using a licensed service with a family memeber/neighbour