Local Authority Case Studies

FINGAL COUNTY COUNCIL - IMPLEMENTATION OF SYSTEM TO DATE

Statistics

Area (hectares)	45,467
Population (1996)	167,683
Miles of road (approx)	670 km

Phase 1 (Set-up Phase)

The identification of the Potential Litter Generators was carried out by the Litter Wardens during 2001. These were carried out by means of visual surveys.

An Environmental Student was employed from June 2002 to implement the whole system. His first task was therefore to enter all the data gathered by the Litter Wardens in the Data Entry System and to locate the Potential Generators on the Digital Maps. The Litter Wardens had located the Potential Generators on OS Discovery 50:000 maps (as they were the only ones they had available). These were not precise enough to locate the Potential Generators accurately on 1:2500 digital maps. Fortunately, the Litter Warden's knowledge of the field proved to be adequate for them to help to locate generators more accurately.

The Set-up Phase was achieved by the end of July 2002. Some problems occurred with the Litter GIS System. The System was unable to extract the Buffer Zones around each Potential Generator. These problems have been solved with the help of the LGCSB.

Statistics:

Total Number of Generators: 1,385
Class 1: 532
Class 2: 748
Class 3: 105

Phase 2 (Benchmark Phase)

The Environmental Student with the help of the Litter Wardens carried out the Litter Pollution Surveys and Litter Quantification Surveys.

The surveys commenced at the beginning of August 2002. The Litter Pollution Surveys were carried out the during the months of August and September, at different times of the day and days of the week for each survey area. By the end of September 2002, 135 Litter Pollution Surveys were carried out. The identification of the Litter Quantification Survey areas relied on the knowledge of the Litter Wardens in order to survey areas with a high quantity of litter. The Litter Quantification Surveys have been carried out at times and days where the litter was present on the survey areas. For areas cleaned on a daily basis, like town centres, the cleansing operatives were asked not to clean in the morning a part of footpath until it was surveyed. In such cases, surveys have been carried out as first thing in the morning and the area was cleaned afterwards. By the end of September 2002, 15 Litter Quantification Surveys were carried out.

The results of each survey was entered in the appropriate database as soon as the survey were carried out. The results will be sent to the Litter Monitoring Body as soon as all the surveys will have been finished.

Ms. Eithne Mallin, Fingal County Council,
Tel: (01) 890 5000