Goya Dmytryshchak
Hobsons Bay council has rejected a petition calling for the reinstatement of a weekly garbage collection, estimating the cost to ratepayers would be $1.56 million.
In February, the council cut garbage collections from weekly to fortnightly under a new four-bin recycling system.
The petition signed by 1120 states, “We believe the removal of the weekly general rubbish waste collection is both inadequate and unsatisfactory, and should not have been done without widespread community consultation and engagement.“
Last week’s council meeting heard that about 3200 out of 39,000 households in Hobsons Bay had opted for a larger 240-litre bin.
Of these 3233 households, 1787 had opted for an interim free upsize from a 120-litre bin, 754 opted for a paid upsize and 692 already had a bigger bin prior to February.
The cost of reinstating a weekly collection would be $40 per household, the council meeting heard.
Councillor Angela Altair said the council had some sympathy for the petitioners but felt that various actions taken, including increasing the availability of the larger bin and having an interim rubbish drop-off service, had alleviated some of the problem for people.
She said it would be “grossly unfair” to reinstate a weekly collection because the majority didn’t want it.
“While, obviously, a substantial number of people who signed the petition are wishing that we could reintroduce the weekly [collection], there’s a lot more people out there – a bit of the silent majority in a way – who are more than supportive of this groundbreaking scheme that we’ve led Australia on,” Cr Altair said.
