[Paula Krahe]

Tenterfield Council have adopted to have a 12 month trial of a rural waste collection pickup along the Mt Lindesay Highway spanning some 100kms as the garbage truck goes on this route weekly. It was adopted to make all properties along this route receive the pick-up service and their only option was to indicate to Council whether they would like a 120L or 240L waste collection service. There has been a petition from ratepayers who do not want any service at all because at present they are taking their domestic waste to a transfer station that may only be manned for one day a week. I am seeking help from other Councils who have implemented rural domestic/commercial waste collection and was seeking information about problems that they had encountered as a result of adopting the charge and how they overcome their problems. Your help is appreciated.

[Emma Murphy]

Hi Paula,
We have a rural collection, various ones but our longest would be from Inverell to Yetman (120km), at the time there was still 2-3 small landfills open along the route. We definitely had people jump up and down, but there was no exemptions given, Council had adopted that is was a ‘serviced road’ and there fore all properties would be charged.

We also charge a vacant rate, for me the hardest part was working out which properties had dwellings and which didn’t. I levied the wrong rate many times, mainly because of the info I had been given from the department which implemented it.

Another issue I have had is, the roads off the ‘main collection route’ have been allowed to have optional collection, by taking their bin to the main road. So in theory they elect to have the collection and then be charge. The problem lies with someone not wanting the collection, buying a bin from Bunnings and putting it out for collection. We have replaced many bins that have been ‘damaged by the truck’ yet they aren’t paying for a service. These could also be recently purchased properties where they think a collection is included.

Good luck.

[Susan Scott]

Better late than never. Our waste department opened up a new service route & allowed the residents to choose whether to have the collections service or not for a period of time. After that time period expired, any new residences were not given the option but had the services assigned compulsorily. As time goes along, it is planned that for those who chose NOT to use the service be gravitatd onto the service. All bins are issued by Council & numbered, with the bin numbers being linked to the property. That way, any bins without the number stamped into them are readily identifiable.

[Author]

Posts