KILCULLEN: 20 April 2001: by Brian Byrne. A Kilcullen-based landfill operator has strongly rejected allegations made in Naas UDC that its business is responsible for dirt and debris on the Naas-Kilcullen Road or that sub-standard vehicles are allowed into its facility
KTK Landfill of Brownstown, Kilcullen, emphasise it is operating fully within its planning permission and EPA licence conditions, and levels of vehicle movements are ‘in line with those originally anticipated’ for the facility.
In a statement, the company says also that ‘absolutely no mud or other debris is tracked out from KTK’ as wheel cleaning of all vehicles is mandatory before leaving the site.
“No vehicle will be accepted at KTK unless the load is fully netted or covered,” says KTK director Kevin Keenan, in response to another allegation made at the April meeting of the UDC. “Vehicles that do not comply with this requirement will be refused entry. And KTK undertakes regular litter collections along the Naas Road.”
Kevin Keenan says the company prides itself on its ‘excellent relationship with local residents and authorities’, and operates to the highest standards, and in support of this he cites published comments from local councillor John Dardis and from the nearby community of Kilcullen.
The issue arose when claims were made that ‘convoys of trucks’ were using Naas as a throughway to and from the KTK landfill at Silliot Hill. In the discussion, the gardai were implicitly censured for failing to take action against trucks passing outside their Naas headquarters with indecipherable numberplates, no nets over their rubbish cargo, and at inordinate speed.
The matter was raised initially by Cllr Mary Glennon, who said the trucks were coming through Naas from as far away as Co Louth, sometimes in the early hours of the morning.
“One result is that the Kilcullen Road is ‘the dirtiest in Kildare,” she said, adding that the mud left by the trucks was making the carriageway dangerous as well as unsightly.
She also asked why should Naas ‘pay’ for the transport of rubbish through the town from all over the country. “We should have by-laws stopping them driving through the town, as a recent motion by Cllr Pat McCarthy demanded,” she said.
Cllr Willie Callaghan said he had followed some of the trucks and found they were using the Craddockstown Road up by the hospital and going down by Hazlemere to exit Naas by Tesco.
Cllr Seamie Moore said he had counted 20 truck movements to and from the Kilcullen Road over a period of an hour-and-a-half, a sequence ‘repeated right through the day’. “We shouldn’t have to put up with this,” he said.
Cllr Charlie Byrne, noting that the offending vehicles passed right in front of the garda station, said that if he had seen one of them involved in an accident, he wouldn’t be able to identify it because of obscured numberplates.
Cllr Pat O’Reilly said the problem has to be tackled. “We can’t have this going on all through the summer,” he said.
Town manager Tommy Skehan told the councillors that KTK was licenced by the EPA to take in certain kinds of waste. He could take up that matter with the EPA from within Kildare County Council.
“But traffic speed control and such affairs are a matter for the gardai,” he told the councillors.
Cllr Glennon told the meeting that a similar landfill facility was proposed for Ballymore Eustace, and this also has implications for increasing truck traffic through Naas.
KTK’s statement also referred to the Ballymore facility, saying that it would ‘utilise different roads to those used by KTK at Silliott Hill and thus would not increase the level of traffic through Naas. This facility has been granted planning permission for up to 50 vehicle movements a day.
Kevin Keenan said the company is ‘very concerned’ about how the discussion in the council chamber referred to KTK. “Such claims are very serious for our business,” he said.