Mums pleading with Council for park bins following child’s encounter with rat

Concerned mums in Ashtown have been pleading with Dublin City Council to install bins at Crescent Park "for years," but their calls are falling on deaf ears despite piled up litter and children interacting with rats

Comments News Stephen Holland Local Democracy Reporter 13:27, 14 Aug 2026 View Image Concerned parents at Crescent Park (pictured) say a lack of bins has led to overflowing littler and a rodent problem (Image: Google Maps)

Concerned mothers in Ashtown are pleading with Dublin City Council to heed their call for park bins following a small child’s encounter with a rat.

A group of mums living near Crescent Park, which serves nearly 2,500 homes across Royal Canal Park and Rathborne, have reached breaking point regarding their constant battle against overflowing litter and rodents that they say the council refuses to properly address. Having contacted TDs and councillors “repeatedly,” they say nothing is changing as DCC state they don’t have the capacity to regularly empty the bins if they were provided.

One mother named Laura told Dublin Live that they have been campaigning for bins in Crescent Park “for years” and was distraught this week when a rat ran out in front of her young son. She said “the lack of bins is unacceptable” but that the council “won’t budge”.

Correspondences between residents and DCC outline why their requests have been refused. The council states that they don’t install bins where they don’t have staff regularly coming to clean them.

“With regard to the provision of additional bins, Parks Services does not normally install bins in small local parks where staff are not regularly based to service them. In such locations, bins can become a fire hazard if they are not emptied frequently, particularly over weekends,” the council said.

DCC instead encourages park users to “take their littler home” and “dispose of it responsibly”. They further outlined that there are two roadside bins located at two of the park’s three main entrances which are maintained by the council’s waste management team .

Locals believe that the bins outside Crescent Park are not enough to address the littering problems with Dublin mum Sinéad stating there are “hundreds of kids using this playground and green space every week”. She claims that Dublin City Council has provided an insufficient number of bins to deal with the level of waste being left behind.

“Because of that, litter and dog waste builds up constantly, which has led to a persistent rodent problem - and because it’s right next to a children's play area, standard pest control can’t even be used safely. DCC waste management tells us they have a collection schedule from Monday to Friday, but everything grinds to a halt over the weekend when the park is at its busiest,” she said.

Sinéad said that engaging with public reps on this issue has not seemed to work and that it has been left up to the community to address the problem. “We have a volunteer group who provide a clean-up meeting every Saturday along the canal,” she said.

“As a hard working community, we pay taxes and shouldn't have to pick up the slack for the council's shortcomings. We need DCC to step up, increase the collection schedule, and give our children back a safe, clean place to play."

This is a problem that is only going to get worse if not dealt with according to those in the area, as planned housing developments mean there will soon be hundreds of more households using the park. This will only create more little and worsen the vermin problem they say.

Katarzyna is a mother of a one-year-old who says she is now considering “avoiding Crescent Park altogether” but that there aren’t any good alternatives in the area. “It's covered in litter and attracting rats and mice - a real health risk to children,” she said. “We're calling on Waste Management Dublin to install bins and introduce proper cleaning without delay."

While their campaign for bins inside the park continues, Dublin City Council has stated that a request has been submitted to the Waste Management Section to consider the installation of an additional bin at the remaining entrance.

This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

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