Residents appreciate rubbish cleanup
A notorious site for dumping junk on the outskirts of Palmerston North has had a welcome tidy, which should hopefully prevent fridges from floating along a swollen ditch.
The Palmerston North City Council closed a large section of Flygers Line for most of Sunday while staff took care of various piles of junk ahead of winter rain.
Fridges, tyres and even a decomposing deer carcass were pulled from various sections of the rural road.
Flygers Line has become a notorious dumping ground for people who decide, for whatever reason, to not take their rubbish to the tip.
Residents have previously spoken about fly-tipping happening on a nightly basis, with people dumping things as random as ute canopies in the past.
Someone once suggested the council pay for a skip bin at the end of the road, in the hope some people may dump their rubbish in that.
Flygers Line resident Edna Goss was a bit pessimistic as to how much change would happen.
‘‘They clean things up and, you know, the next day it’s just about as bad again,’’ she said.
‘‘There is usually stuff on the road, but I pick up what I can and bring it inside. ‘‘If it’s burnable I’ll burn it.’’ There had been larger items turn up though, such as fridges, double beds and even a safe, she said.
She suspected people found it difficult to get rid of things like television sets, so they took to dumping.
Another Flygers Line resident, Anna Long, said it was the first time the council had closed the road to do one big sweep for flytipped rubbish.
‘‘We got a letter two or three weeks ago saying it was going on.’’
There had not been a big cleanup since before the 2016 floods, which brought much of the rubbish through the roadside drain, she said.
‘‘We had fridges floating under our bridge.’’
Fly-tipping had always been an issue on the road, which suffered from having high banks in part - a feature which provided cover for illegal dumpers, Long said.
‘‘It has not got any worse, but is probably still like it has always been.’’
Residents are hoping illegal dumpers refrain from dumping rubbish in their area.