Carrigbrook estate in Carlow town plagued by illegal dumping

“I DON’T even open my blinds anymore,” said one Carrigbrook resident of the illegal dump that he can see from his bedroom window.

Mark, who did not share his real name for fear of retaliation, said that he bought a semi-detached house in the estate one-and-a-half years ago and lives there with his mother. The freshly-painted cream houses stand in contrast to the oasis of rubbish in the gated field that surrounds them. While there was some building rubbish present when he first moved in, the site is currently in the worst state he has ever seen.

To prevent soiled nappies and litter from being blown onto his front lawn, Mark spent €1,000 erecting a fence around his property. Unprotected lawns nearby are sometimes littered with plastic and debris. Dogs roam the estate and nearby fields, pawing at rubbish.

The land to the south of the estate is owned by Firtree Developments Ltd, a business belonging to Stephen Murphy. Another of his companies, Milltown Developments, developed 86 houses there, many of which are social housing. This makes him responsible for removing the dumped rubbish, something that frustrates him. 

Stephen claimed to have cleared rubbish from the site four times, which has cost him thousands of euros in machinery and labour costs. “I am really tired of going in to clean it all up. It’s gone beyond the call of duty now.” 

Only half of the original 198 houses for which Milltown Developments received planning permission in 2008 have materialised, laying waste to a large portion of the site. Stephen attributes this to a decision by Carlow Co Council to rezone the site as ‘strategic reserve’ in September 2024, effective until 2030. The purpose of land in this zone is ‘to provide a land reserve for the orderly development and future expansion of the towns and villages into the future,’ according to the local area plan.

Similarly, an adjoining site was supposed to become a co-operative housing estate, according to plans submitted to the council in 2008. It is now home to ten horses.

Stephen said he had tried to secure the site and prevent dumping by putting up a wire fence and padlocking it, but explained that the perpetrators had broken the locks and entered anyway. Locks were not visible when The Nationalist visited the site last week.

Meanwhile, Mark has made several complaints to Carlow Co Council, even turning up at its offices last week to try to sort out the issue. A council official told him that they don’t meet members of the public at the office. Gardaí told Mark to contact the council, which then referred him back to the gardaí.

“It’s like a ping-pong game, and I am the ball,” said Mark.

Eight weeks after he first complained to the council, he appealed to the Environmental Protection Agency on 13 April to apply pressure on the issue. A rubbish collection truck arranged by Stephen Murphy arrived on Friday morning, 17 April, and began excavating the rubbish.

Burning rubbish is also a recurring issue, according to Mark, who recalled the fire brigade attending the site four times to put out huge fires.

In a statement, Carlow Co Council said its environment department ‘received 11 complaints from members of the public regarding illegal dumping of waste on private lands adjacent to Carrigbrook in Carlow town since 2024’.

It noted multiple engagements with the landowner, Stephen Murphy, regarding ‘cleansing and securing of the lands, including service of notices under the Waste Management Act’.

‘A number of investigations by Carlow Co Council’s environmental patrol officers have failed to identify the source of the waste.

‘A CCTV scheme to assist in identifying the offenders will be installed in the area in the coming weeks,’ the council spokesperson continued.

Stephen was supportive of any means to catch the perpetrators. Mark is pessimistic about the impact CCTV cameras will have on the situation. He would prefer to see the land closed off, with a wall or locked gate to prevent people from accessing it.

“They already know who’s doing it. Putting a CCTV camera is just to say that, okay, we are doing something. But you have laws, you have manpower, you have everything. Unless you are enforcing it, it is useless. It is just a waste of money,” said Mark.

Carlow Co Council reminded the public that it is an offence to collect or give waste to an unpermitted operator. It said the environment department would welcome the public’s assistance in identifying the source of the waste and that information can be submitted in confidence to environment@carlowcoco.ie or by calling 059 9136231.