Silliott Hill loses €850,000 a year

The Silliot Hill recycling and waste management centre is losing €855,000 a year, around a third of Kildare County Council's annual losses of €2.4 million on waste management.

According to a report given to Kildare councillors at their July meeting, the similar but smaller civic amenity in Athy is losing €400,000 a year.

"To be incurring such losses is not sustainable for this local authority," says Cllr Martin Heydon, a member of the Council's Finance Committee. “The losses at the civic amenity sites in Silliot Hill and Athy must be addressed."

He says he is totally opposed to the suggestion of closing any civic amenity centres, and insists that there is room for greater efficiencies to be found in the day to day operations. "At present there is a crossover between the Finance and Environment departments as well as with the contractor in handling all administration issues that arise. This is not an efficient use of our staff resources."

At the end of last year, when Gerry Crehan retired from his position as manager, Silliot Hill had a staff of up to 17.