LOAD OF RUBBISH

Locals dump on kerbside pick- up plan

RESIDENTS living in outer suburbs are filthy over the staggered commencement of Townsville City Council’s kerbside hard rubbish collection program.

The program, announced last week, will roll out over this calendar year in lieu of free dump vouchers for Townsville ratepayers.

Some residents are upset their items may not be collected by the end of the financial year, despite paying full rates.

RESIDENTS of outer suburbs are filthy over the staggered commencement of Townsville City Council’s kerbside hard waste collection program.

The program, announced last week, will roll out over this calendar year in lieu of free dump vouchers for ratepayers.

Some residents are upset their items may not be collected by the end of the financial year, despite paying full rates.

Hard rubbish collection was a Team Hill election pledge in the 2016 local election and $ 2.5 million has been budgeted for the program.

Dump vouchers have been phased out to make way for the collection, meaning residents must wait for hard rubbish collection or pay to use dumps.

Townsville has been split into 25 zones for collection with Zone 1, covering Kelso, Gumlow and Pinnacles, beginning on January 29.

Collection in each zone is set to take several weeks, meaning Balgal Beach, which falls into Zone 25, will not likely be reached before July 1.

Residents are disappointed they will likely be last and many have vented their frustration on social media pages.

Resident Jennifer- Lee Sinclair said the gap between the removal of dump vouchers and the implementation of kerbside collections was unfair.

“All rate- paying residents in Townsville will have paid their rates from July 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017, and then again from January 1, 2018 to July 30, 2018,” she said.

“However there will be a significant portion of residents who do not receive a hard rubbish collection and also no longer have tip vouchers.

“This is very unreasonable and I imagine it will cause significant public outcry.”

Ms Sinclair said she believed residents in zones to be collected after June 30 were at a financial disadvantage.

Other residents voiced their frustration on Facebook, with one man saying: “We should move under the Ingham banner, might get treated as human beings there”.

“Maybe we will get ours before the next cyclone season, just not this one,” one woman said.

Another woman said residents should receive a rate cut.

During last week’s announcement, Mayor Jenny Hill assured residents everyone would get their turn.

“We need the community to be patient and as we move through this process in the next 12 months we’ll improve how we do these collections,” she said.

The waste management levy covers kerbside pick- up, free green waste disposal and free recycling disposal.

“We’ve implemented free green waste dumping, this is the next part of that process,” Cr Hill said last week. “We’re providing the opportunity for residents to be able to clean up their properties. There’s no more excuses.”

Council dumps are free over the Australia Day weekend.