By Joe McCann
A BANGOR resident has spoken out about ongoing and serious anti-social behaviour incidents near his home on the Old Belfast Road.
Curtis McAuley said he moved into the home with his wife and son around a year-and-a-half ago and has been suffering the negative effects of anti-social behaviour and fly-tipping ever since.
The home is situated beside the bottle and clothing banks on council-owned land at Bangor Sportsplex and he said the bottle and clothing banks beside his home cause excessive noise and are also used by many to disguise fly-tipping.
He said items which are dumped at the banks – which is situated beside a children’s playpark – have included a knife, needles and medical equipment, nitrous oxide canisters, a washing machine and a microwave.
The Bangor man said the car park is accessible to the public at all hours and is frequently the site of people doing burnouts, tire spins and doughnuts in their cars which is further compounding the problem.
Bottles are being dumped into the metal banks before 5am in the morning and after 1am at night, with the metal doors constantly banging over and closed, he said.
“There are people fly-tipping at these banks but who are disguising their fly-tipping as donations so they can dump loads of stuff there,” he said.
“I’ve found needles discarded there and nitrous oxide canisters and it was recently reported that a knife was found there as well, all right beside a children’s playpark. I believe parents who use the park have a right to know about what is being dumped beside where their children play.”
He said the noise generated from this has massively affected his and his family’s quality of life and has meant none of them are getting any sleep.
He said some measure of noise prevention was put in but it has not worked, he said, “Environmental Health have put up what they call acoustic fencing but it isn’t working or keeping the noise out.
In December they said they were going to put rubber into the ball banks to help dampen the noise and it’s still not been put in. “Councillors have said they have put up signage but there is just one sign and nobody is paying attention to it, there just seems to be loads of failures on the council.”
Mr McAuley said he had also suggested to the council that due to the size of the site, the banks could be moved away from homes to lessen the noise.
“I came home one night around 7.40pm and there was a guy in the car park drinking alcohol and his friends in their cars were doing doughnuts around him,” he said.
“He got back in the car and they all began throwing their bottles out of their cars so everyone there was obviously drinking.
“They tried to drive the car out and lost control and the whole back end of the car lost control and hit the kerb and you can still see the damage it did to the kerb.
“I have told the council about this numerous times and I don’t know what they are waiting for, whether it’s for a kid to be run over or someone to be killed.”
He added: “It’s like living next to a refuse centre. I just want them to address the issues and acknowledge the effect it’s had on my family as well as make others aware of the situation and dangers that their children could be subjected to.”
