A man was caught burying rubbish at Castor Bay on Auckland's North Shore about 6.40pm last night. Photo / Supplied
A man was caught burying rubbish at Castor Bay on Auckland's North Shore about 6.40pm last night. Photo / Supplied
A Castor Bay local was left disgusted after witnessing a man burying rubbish on the beach last night.
The concerned resident, who wished to remain anonymous, was sitting at the beach on Auckland's North Shore with her husband and their international student when they watched a man walk onto thebeach and bury a large bag of rubbish.
"There is a path that goes up next to the houses which is a walkway to the street above, and a man came down with this big bag of rubbish and two bottles of beer," she said.
"He put the two bottles of beer in the rubbish bin. He then walked over on the sand and next thing he bends down and uses his hands and starts digging this big hole.
"I said to my husband, 'oh my God, he is going to bury the rubbish in the sand and cover it up, and it will eventually go out to sea'."
"He said it was fish and things, but it didn't look like fish to me. I told him I thought it was disgusting that he was dumping the rubbish, and he said people do it all the time on their boats and I could report him."
The man gave the woman his name then walked away.
The resident said she was disgusted by the man's behaviour.
"This is my local beach and I am disgusted this behaviour is going on.
"I would say he is probably a local and he knew the tide was coming in," she said.
"I phoned the council straight away but they phoned back this morning and said they only came to the beach this morning as they don't work after 5pm.
"This is really disappointing because the tide would have covered up the big hole that he dug."
The resident said the man appeared to be aged in his 30s, and was accompanied by an older gentleman aged about 60.
She said the incident happened about 6.40pm while there weren't many people on the beach, but everyone else "turned a blind eye" to the behaviour.
"I was disappointed no one else said anything," she said. "But council were very happy that I reported it."
Auckland Council waste contracts and compliance manager Warwick Jaine said the council call centre received a complaint from a member of the public at approximately 7.45pm last night.
"A waste solutions enforcement officer visited Castor Bay at 7.30am this morning. After a search of the beach he was unable to locate where the alleged dumping took place," he said.
"Council will be investigating this further based on the information received."
Jaine said council did not respond earlier due to Waste Solutions operating with a skeleton crew after hours.
"[Waste Solutions] is only resourced to attend emergency operations such as waste issues that are danger to people's health and safety, such as waste that is created from events like a major storm, or an accident that could be blocking traffic on a motorway or road," he said.
"We are unable to staff people outside of hours for an enforcement matters such as this."
