Operation Clean-Up ‘holes’
But pleas to City answered as deputy mayor urges focus on Wongawallan ‘nightmare’
Entire suburbs smashed with storm and flood disaster debris were initially not included in the Gold Coast City Council’s Operation Clean-up site, forcing concerned councillors to intervene.
Division 5 councillor Peter Young mounted direct pleas for attention in Gaven, Maudsland, Pacific Pines and Nerang while Division 9 councillor Glenn Tozer did the same for parts of his hinterland area.
They contacted City chief executive Tim Baker along with his senior bureaucrats after a confidential email from Mr Baker had gone out to councillors about the operation.
Separately, some councillors said “the map has got big holes in it”. Hinterland suburbs west of the M1 were ignored as the focus was first put on the HelensvaleCoombabah-Paradise Point stretch worst impacted by the Christmas Eve tornado.
Mr Young has reassured his residents after the Operation Clean-up website went live on Monday showing where the green waste kerbside program would occur.
“Unfortunately the program published reveals just two streets in the entirety of Division 5 – Binstead Way and Pitcairn Way in Pacific Pines – identified for the kerbside program and neither have any homes fronting onto the street,” he wrote on Facebook.
“In effect not a single home in Division five has been identified for a green waste pick up. I became aware of this draft program of works via a confidential email from the CEO on Saturday
afternoon.
“I subsequently wrote and spoke with him five times and on Sunday I spent the entire afternoon driving around almost the entire Division collecting evidence and listing streets where property owners have duly presented voluminous quantities of green waste on the kerb for collection as has been the City’s advice for the past 10 days.
“I submitted a list of about 50 streets to the CEO and his staff (Sunday) and these are receiving attention – trucks are servicing Pacific Pines streets right now.”
Mr Young said he expected kerbside collections would take place in several other streets which he identified, including Gaven, Maudsland and Nerang.
“So please don’t despair your street does not appear on the map published today,” he wrote.
Residents are being urged to go to City website citygc.au/ cleanup to register their address.
Mr Tozer late on Monday met City staff to help improve the clean-up after his Division 9 also missed priority coverage.
“The green waste collection will come into Division 9,” he later told residents.
But Mr Tozer urged impacted property owners to contact his office to ensure a co-ordinated one-off collection from their street.
In launching Operation Clean-Up, Mayor Tom Tate called it a “once-in-a-generation sized storm clean-up” that would involved clearing 75,000 truckloads of debris.
Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor Donna Gates has reached out to senior bureaucrats to focus on Wongawallan, the rural suburb west of Oxenford, calling it “an absolute nightmare”.
Wongawallan was one of the worst affected along with Upper Coomera in her northern division, she said.
“The power has only been restored on the weekend,” Ms Gates said. “We’ve seen an amazing recovery effort. It has been extraordinary. The administration knows they have missing streets. It’s a moving feast and we will ultimately get to everyone who has a need. If a street is missing, you can contact me directly and we will arrange for it to be investigated immediately. No one has seen this level of destruction in 20 to 30 years. This has been the worst event we have suffered as a city in memory. It will take time to fix.”
A City spokesman said Operation Clean-up would focus on the most highly impacted areas.
More than 1000 streets in 24 suburbs had been included in the kerbside collection service.
“If your street doesn’t appear and you have storm-related debris requiring collection, please go to the Operation Clean-up web pages to register your interest for an on demand collection or call council for more information,” the spokesman said.