An independent member of Derry and Strabane council has been compared to the US presidential hopeful Donald Trump after he complained about people from Donegal using a recycling facility in the city..
Councillor Patsy Kelly made the comments at this afternoon’s meeting of the council’s Environment and Regeneration Committee, during a discussion on the new recycling facility in Pennyburn.
Cllr Kelly said that having visited the facility earlier this week, he was concerned at the number of Donegal registered cars entering the facility.
He then said that council should now use CCTV to identify vehicles with Donegal number plates, as local ratepayers ‘shouldn’t have to foot the bill’ for people from Donegal using a facility in Derry.
Cllr Kelly then said that he had been told during the visit that people from Donegal accounted for ’30 to 40 per cent’ of those using the centre.
Responding, Conor Canning, Head of Environment with Derry City and Strabane District, said that it was not as ‘clear as it seemed’, given that people with Donegal number plates could be living in the city, or have family in Derry and are taking waste to the facility on their behalf.
The SDLP’s Brian Tierney then asked Cllr Kelly to tell the meeting where the figure of 30 – 40 per cent had come from, or had he ‘just pulled it out of the air?’
When Cllr Kelly refused to say where the figure had come from, Cllr Tierney asked the Head of Environment at Derry City and Strabane District Council, Karen Philips where the information could have come from, but she replied that council did not keep such statistics.
The Sinn Fein councillor Sandra Duffy said she was ‘absolutely shocked’ at Cllr Kelly ‘coming up that statistic’, before adding that her relatives from Donegal have taken waste to the dump on her behalf.
She then asked Cllr Kelly if he was ‘trying to grab a Trump headline’, before asking him if he wanted to ‘build a wall’.
“It’s a ridiculous statement,” she said.
Above left, Donald Trump, and right, independent councillor Patsy Kelly.
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