Twelve residents on the outskirts of Geurie have submitted a petition to Dubbo Regional Council to have their new bins taken back.
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On July 2, council introduced the Food and Garden Organics Waste bin as part of a new three bin collection service. About 170 properties in the local government area started receiving a waste collection for the first time.
The 12 Old Road residents signed a petition to say they don’t want a kerbside garbage collection but wish to continue taking their rubbish to the Geurie tip.
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However, mayor Ben Shields said residents were unable to opt out of the garbage service.
“I can certainly understand why people don’t want these services, in fact I campaigned against the Organics Bin, but we do have a contract and when we start playing with the contract that’s when prices go up, that’s when other areas start demanding not to have the services as well and it becomes a real problem for the council,” Cr Shields said.
“We’ve got to stick to the agreed contract terms which was signed by the administrator.”
Speaking at the July council meeting on Monday night on behalf of the residents, Kevin Besant urged council to reconsider the rubbish collection service.
Mr Besant said the residents were happy to continue with the historic plan of using the tip. Terminating the garbage service would not create any additional environmental impacts, he said, as there would be less carbon emissions from the garbage truck.
The majority of residents in the former Wellington council area went from using one bin to three.
It was early days into the new three bin collection service, Cr Shields said.
“I think it’s a lot smoother judging by the fact that it’s weekly. It would have been an absolute disaster if it had been collected fortnightly, especially with people who have babies and dirty nappies and things like that. That’s been a slight saving there,” he said.
“We’ll get the biggest feedback coming into the summer period when we start seeing more green waste. That’s when we can see if it’s actually been a success or not and I think we’ll start getting more feedback when the rates notices go out and people see the size of the rates as well and the increase.”
The 2018/19 Domestic Waste Management Charge will be $378 for the areas receiving the three bin service and $308 for those with two bins.
Orlander Ruming
Deputy editor at the Daily Liberal, covering council, politics, human interest stories, community news and everything in between.
Deputy editor at the Daily Liberal, covering council, politics, human interest stories, community news and everything in between.
