Rubbishing our region

Cracking down on illegal dumping

MORE than 50 people have been charged with illegal dumping in Townsville as the council cracks down on an all too common practice which is rubbishing our outer suburbs.

Councillors last week were provided with an update on a program which is aimed at combating the scourge, not just here, but around the region.

Over the past year people have been issued with fines totalling about $50,000, while some cleaned up their mess to avoid a penalty.

Councillor Ann-maree Greaney said she thought the program was working well.

“I think we had 54 people charged with illegal dumping. We had some people go and collect their illegal dumping so that they wouldn’t have a fine. That actually works in preventing further incidents,” Cr Greaney said.

Illegal dumping is the unlawful deposit of any type of waste material that is 200 litres or more in volume or about the volume of a wheelie bin.

Common items dumped include bags of general household waste, garden waste, building materials, white goods, mattresses, furniture, cars, car parts and tyres.

Cr Russ Cook said it was disappointing the council had to investigate almost 400 instances of illegal dumping in the past 12 months.

“Illegal dumping is a nuisance, and it does cost money to investigate and clean up,” he said.

“It is incredibly frustrating when we have services available to residents that make it very cheap and easy to get rid of their rubbish,” Cr Cook said.

Cr Cook said there were 52 occasions where people returned to collect their waste to avoid a fine.

The council received funding to purchase CCTV cameras and signs and educate the community through advertising.

Penalty Infringement Notices were issued for illegal dumping offences in the following areas:

Blackhawk Boulevard, Thuringowa Central

Ireland Street, Oonoonba Shannon Street, Oonoonba Racecourse Road, Stuart

Kelso Drive, Kelso

Laudberg Road, Kelso

North Shore Boulevard, Burdell

Abattoir Road, Cosgrove Jensen Road, Jensen Cleveland Bay, Stuart

Geaney Lane, Deeragun Lionel Turner Drive, Bushland Beach

Somer Street, Hyde Park

Shaw Road, Shaw

The council has five waste facilities at Stuart, Hervey Range, Toomulla, Bluewater and Magnetic Island.