Collection move kicked to the kerb
THE funeral march is now playing for kerbside collections all over the Coast despite the last ditch efforts of councillor Tony Wellington to bring them back Lazarus-like at least in Division 12.
Not even his fellow Noosa councillor Russell Green, who was part of the Sunshine Coast Council waste minimisation strategy team, would support Cr Wellington's bid to sacrifice some non-regional capital works in his division, to pay for cost of an annual collection.
Cr Wellington after listening to the anti-kerbside collection debate from fellow councillors kill off his election commitment, said it was appropriate that the council had just discussed its cemetery plan because councillors were witnessing the "death throes" of a service embraced by Noosa residents.
"I have something of a mandate from the residents of Division 12 to pursue this," he said before the vote to allow the Tewantin and Noosa hinterland bulk collections was taken," he said.
Cr Wellington said his constituents were quite used to having kerbside clean ups on an annual basis and were somewhat shocked when they were removed by the amalgamated council.
The councillor highlighted all the positives including "a belief in my division" that kerbside cleans ups lead to a decrease in illegal dumping.
"Kerbside clean ups arguably reduce the amount of material going into landfill because of scavenging," Cr Wellington said.
But Cr Tim Dwyer said the Coast council had moved on from kerbside collections and asked why should council promote a project that would fill up local landfills quicker.
Cr Ted Hungerford was concerned that deferring any Division 12 capital works could also delay prioritised works in other divisions.
And Cr Green said the reason why tip fees had risen was that for the first time the real price had been set for waste disposal.
"The challenge we have as a society is those people who obviously don't take responsibility for the rubbish they produce."
Cr Green said when people wanted their free dump vouchers back, "you have to try to explain that ... waste services aren't free".
