Letters to the editor: Resistance to rubbish bin plan

One reader is happy with rubbish bags. Photo / File

Re the news article, Rubbish revamp sparks complaints (News, October 2).

I find it amazing the Tauranga City Council can come up with the figures that if it has had 70 people say they did not like it, then they have had 10 people telling it they do.

What does this tell us? If the council had included in its original market research of 1502 people a question of whether in fact ratepayers wanted change, not just what were the present home owners running costs, etc, for rubbish collection.

Talk about a wasted chance.

Most ratepayers unhappy with the newly proposed four-bin system are not so much against it but do not like being forced to pay and accept it.

Come on council, give us the choice to have it or refuse it.

It would not be too hard to simply take my name off the list of deliveries.

Choice is true democracy

If I am forced to accept then when the bins are delivered to my address they will remain at the kerb.

James Newman
Mount Maunganui

Bins not needed

I will not be having the council's wheelie bins on my property and will deduct the $230 from my rates.

No food leaves the property thanks to a worm farm, chooks and a Labrador dog.

Everything else is recycled and a bag of washed plastic put out the gate every six weeks at a yearly cost of about $35.

Tell me council, what am I doing wrong and why I should be penalised?

Dennis Webster
Brookfield

Not surprised

I am not surprised Tauranga City Council has foisted its rubbish removal scheme on to ratepayers rather than put it to consultation.

It would be very difficult trying to defend a system that is not user-pays but instead penalises small households, frugal households, composting households and households that are trying to reduce waste.

Small and sober households are, in my view, already being ripped off by the council's bottle collection.

I am grateful the councillors who opposed the decision to foist this expensive scheme upon ratepayers but warn them that if they keep making decisions that put ratepayers first, they run the serious risk of being re-elected next time.

R Rimmer
Tauranga

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