NAAS 14 January 2003: Lawyers differ and clients pay. And the common people lose.
That could be the conclusion from a recent meeting of Naas Town Council, when Cllr Pat McCarthy raised an old bugbear and asked for the status of his query on the legal status of the council providing a 'waiver' system to help the financially challenged deal with their waste disposal costs.
Last year, Cllr McCarthy had provided by motion a legally detailed proposal as to how the Naas council could follow the practice of a number of other local authorities in the country and provide for such a waiver.
At the time, Naas town clerk Declan Kirrane had strongly advocated against any such system. And recently, in response to the most recent raising of the issue, he read from a legal advice to the council itself that the statutes raised by Cllr McCarthy would not apply.
At the 2003 Budget meeting, Cllr McCarthy asked if Kildare County Council would be taking over the refuse collection service of Naas under new regulations.
"They operate a very good waiver system," he said.
He was told that KCC would NOT be taking over the refuse collection, which the former Naas UDC privatised some years ago.
