Report Paul Murphy
Meath County Council has been asked to outline how many areas in Meath are being lined up for the provision of CCTV cameras to combat littering. Independent Cllr Geraldine Keogan asked the question at the March meeting of the council. Officials responded that the council was fully committed to tackling littering and illegal dumping across the county and continues to prioritise a combination of enforcement, education and public engagement measures to achieve positive outcomes.
It said that it wasn’t progressing new locations for CCTV deployment “as the requirements under date protection , including the need to demonstrate strict necessity and proportionality , place significant operational and resource constraints on the use of CCTV for litter enforcement”. These requirements continued to evolve” and the council must ensure that any use of surveillance technology is fully compliant with all statutory obligations”.
However, the council’s litter warden service and the council environment awareness officer continued to carry out extensive on-the-ground monitoring, enforcement actions and targeted interventions at known litter blackspots. A number of measures it had implemented had led to “measurable improvements” in combating littering. It is also keeping the CCTV situation under review.
