Galway City Council will not deploy more bins as people are dumping the rubbish equivalent of an Electric Picnic every day when the sun shines while huge bins in their midst remain empty.

That was the assertion of Director of Services for Urban Development Patrick Greene, who was responding to a plea from Cllr Shane Forde (FG) for a greater number to be provided across the city.

“All the bins are full at 7pm. The bins are overflowing. We need a plan to get more bins. We’re getting tagged by people with pictures of overflowing bins in prominent locations … it’s a bad sign of a city,” he exclaimed.

Mr Greene said he could show the councillors pictures of piles of rubbish thrown around unused bins and texts from staff who were despondent at the state of the place.

“It was like Electric Picnic every morning – and a big bin empty beside it. You don’t see it because it’s all gone by the time you get up. You can put all the bins you want — it’s a cultural issue. We have to have members of the public helping.

“I can tell you of the frustration every morning. We had a bin the size of small house — not only did they not put it into the bins, they threw it beside it. We also had bags left for them to fill. A lot of it is ending up in the river, so it’s polluting the place. It’s really sad really.”

Cllr Frank Fahy said he regularly saw the state of the place on early morning taxi runs. He had councillor colleagues from Dungarvan giving out about the state of the bins.

“We need to be more proactive. There needs to be an incentive for groups to collect cans. Our wardens should be using litter fines.”

Cllr Forde said the 1,100-litre bins at the Spanish Arch were the wrong kind of bins.

“There’s no sign to say it’s a waste disposal bin — they’re the wrong type of bin. They should be the 300 litre bins.”

Cllr John McDonagh (Lab) asked for either side of the Spanish Arch be roped off to thwart people from falling into the water. He knew of a person in the ‘90s who had fallen in on the Long Walk side of the Spanish Arch and was left paralysed in hospital for a decade before dying.

He suggested a fish-shaped bin to encourage people to dispose of their litter, an initiative which had worked in another seaside city.

Mr Greene said they were currently trialing a social media campaign to urge the public to dump their litter responsibly. He also reminded councillors that Galway had been deemed to be clean to European norms according to the last IBAL litter (Irish Businesses Against Litter) survey.

Cllr Helen Ogbu (Lab) asked what was being done to follow up on letters sent to known litter louts in well-known blackspots on the east of the city.

Senior engineer Fiona Holland said litter management on the east side had been thwarted by low staff levels until recently, but the newly built team had met with residents’ groups and other shareholders to come up with an inter-agency plan to deal with the scourge.

“We have carried out some small works in the last months, I’d ask for patience. We are mounting checkpoints and checking the three-bin system among residents. We are 100% committed to hearing good ideas in the environment section.”

Cllr Clodagh Higgins (FG) asked if there were plans to put on more litter crews for the weekend in Salthill, which would be thronged with people for the double header in Pearse Stadium, Africa Day festival and rowing crews and spectators for An Tóstal festival.

Mr Greene said the Council have seven-day cover across all areas and were constantly reviewing how to improve their services.

Pictured: An overflowing bin in the city centre.