Newman trashes council's new waste-disposal system

... Whangarei District Councillor Frank Newman seems to think so.Outspoken Tutukaka Coast representative Frank Newman has levelled a scathing attack on his council's waste-management policies and contracts.
Among a list of criticisms Mr Newman has fired at Whangarei District Council is a claim the Pohe Island rubbish dump was binned too early.
In a self-penned media release Mr Newman also claimed ratepayers were directly footing a larger-than-necessary chunk of the council's current $9 million waste disposal bill.
Mr Newman said the user-pays charges calculated on ratepayer charges of $90 a tonne were more than the cost of disposal.
He also refuted the council's argument that it was cheaper to transport the district's waste to Redvale than to open up the Puwera landfill site for which the council had full consents.
His research had exposed "inconsistencies" between the council's public statements and what its records show, he said.
Mr Newman told the Northern Advocate it was time the council stopped hiding behind claims of commercial sensitivity and came clean about its contracts.
"All I want is that the information be made available to the public. Although certainly there may be some commercially sensitive areas, the whole of the waste management contract is marked confidential."
But his broadside has raised little more than a sigh from the council's deputy mayor and works and services committee chairman Phil Halse, who described Mr Newman's comments as "a matter of interpretation".
The waste management issue had been raked over years earlier and the council had done its homework properly through four years of research, Mr Halse said.
"I'm disappointed that (Mr Newman) is looking back when the rest of the council is looking forward."
The waste disposal subject was no longer a major area of contention but was an issue Mr Newman wanted to stir up, he said
"It's been through the annual plan, it's all agreed and signed off, and I'm really comfortable with it," Mr Halse said.
"It's not an issue. While the rest of the council might not agree individually on all aspects of the waste management policy collectively we're comfortable with it."
The transfer of rubbish to Redvale was now funded directly by residents buying tickets or official rubbish bags, Mr Halse said. Ratepayers still subsidised recycling costs through the $100 uniform annual charge.
"Absolutely, as of today, it's cheaper to send our rubbish to Redvale. The bottom line is that we are trying to keep the cost as low as possible on a user-pay basis."
* RUBBISH FACTS
• About 50,000 tonnes of rubbish produced in Whangarei District each year has to go somewhere. Recycling reduces the pile by up to 3000 tonnes.
•The council decided on a sooner-rather-than-later approach to closing the urban-based Pohe Island landfill. While it may have been allowable under its consents until 2007, the landfill has outlived its environmental acceptability and viability, Mr Halse says.
•The council is the only authority north of Auckland with full consents to operate a new landfill site, at Puwera. The ready-to-go landfill has an expected life of 55 years.
• Purewa is a long way from being dead in the water, Cr Halse says. The way of the future might involve a cost-effective arrangement whereby the site also takes the Far North and Kaipara districts' rubbish, which currently goes to Redvale.