Arguing for change, Catherine Murphy described the problem, “The open market has resulted in six licensed operators collecting across the county. In many residential areas, there are several competing collections each week and when the trucks arrive during normal sleeping hours, they cause a lot of disturbance. We think that limiting the times for residential area collections to between 8am and 8pm would reduce the problem. We need a practical solution that can be applied fairly to all refuse operators.”

In their initial report, Council officials anticipated implementation difficulties to limiting operational noise levels from refuse trucks. Furthermore, there seems to be no scope in the current waste legislation which mandates councils to simply licence the collection of refuse and its safe disposal.

Pádraig McEvoy explained how similar noise limits were already widely acceptable. “The new NCT’s prohibit noisy car exhausts. The Government are planning to regulate for faulty house alarms. Council planning permission conditions are frequently applied to curtail development noise during the night in residential areas. The EU limits the acceptable noise that comes from road surfaces. If there are legal complications associated with the revision of existing refuse collection licences, then a new bye-law should be explored.”

In pressing for a quick solution, Paddy Kennedy regarded the issue as a simple one. “No one can tolerate persistent noisy disruptions to sleep on an ongoing basis. It impacts enormously on peoples’ quality of life. Refuse collections are an essential service and we realise that the operators are simply earning their living. However, there is an inherent commercial efficiency by covering routes quickly and it is unlikely in the short term that quieter technology will reduce the associated noise.”

Seamie Moore, who is also the current Mayor for Naas Town Council, said there appeared to be little flexibility available through the licensing system which was an obvious flaw in the legislation.   He said he  expected the problems experienced in some parts of Kildare are repeated elsewhere or would be in the future particularly given the competition in the waste market.   We have to provide some protection to residents of our housing estates,  who have a right to an undisturbed  night’s sleep and that includes children.

The Council officials have undertaken to continue their legal research on the issue and have committed to bring forward alternative solutions including the introduction of a by-law  at the next meeting of the Council in September.