Bin may return after poo piles up
An O¯ ra¯kei Local Board member says the removal of a rubbish bin as part of a cost-cutting measure is no reason to dump dog faeces in protest, but the bin could be reinstated.
It comes after the Herald revealed dog walkers in the wealthy suburb of Remuera have been dumping bags of dog poo at the entrance to a popular dog-walking area.
Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan on Thursday night, O¯ra¯kei Local Board member Troy Churton said the protest about “the loss of some bins that used to exist is duly noted”.
“But that’s no reason to carry on leaving your dog s*** in a certain area where there was once a bin.”
Churton said that in June last year, local boards across the region were asked to “swallow an instruction from governing body” to find ways of reducing certain services due to funding cuts.
“Some of the bins that were taken
can be reinstated because it’s easier to swallow a rates increase, I guess, when you know that the service levels you’ve become accustomed to are being maintained,” he said.
Churton said he would “absolutely” talk with his board to “see what we can do” about the situation in O¯ ra¯kei. “There’s no basis for an argument that having fewer bins means less collection costs.”
One woman walking her 3-yearold spoodle Milo on Wednesday morning was shocked to find a pile of about a dozen or more plastic bags of poo at the entrance of a pathway leading to the O¯ ra¯kei Basin off Upland Rd.
“Dog owners, either in optimistic expectation that the bin will be replaced or in protest at its removal, are continuing to deposit their dog’s doings in bags in the spot where the bin once stood,” said the woman, who did not want to be named.
The pile of poo bags is alongside a council sign, designating it an offleash dog exercise area.
Martin Wong, the council’s area operations manager for Waitemata¯ and O¯ ra¯kei, confirmed the bin at the entrance to O¯ ra¯kei Basin had been removed, saying there is a bin not far away in the carpark area for dog walkers to use. He said it was irresponsible to dump dog waste in other people’s bins or “our environment”.
Last month, the Herald reported Aucklanders turning to social media en masse to complain about the sudden removal of public rubbish bins.