Big hike in dump charges

The cost of creating rubbish has just got higher in Masterton.
From October 1, it will cost Masterton people extra to dump rubbish when the town's tip officially becomes a "transfer station" and the region's rubbish disappears to Manawatu.
The Masterton District Council approved an entire new list of fees lat night, taking into account the new operation of trucking rubbish out of the district.
Across the board each category of rubbish has increased around $2-$3, but it'll cost $35 to dump an unstripped car in Masterton, up $10, and the official rubbish bags for urban dwellers to leave outside their gate for collection, will cost $9.20 for a pack of five, up 18 per cent from $7.80.
Recycling remains the only free service still run from the Nursery Road site.
Commercial users will pay $120 per tonne as will anyone wanting to get rid of construction or demolition waste.
This latter activity attracted a response from councillors.
The soon to be defunct Masterton police station is to be demolished and mayor, Bob Francis suggested an alternative site in Wairarapa for such construction debris. He also wondered where the rubbish from the new underground carpark on Chapel Street would be going.
"It would be a nonsense for this type of rubbish to be trucked to Bonny Glen."
It was decided an alternative waste policy should be investigated.
The Masterton tip closes on September 30 when its resource consent runs out.
It will mark the end of a 70-year history of collecting rubbish there, which was once at ground level and now sits 12metres high. Amongst locals, it's been nicknamed "Mt Hurrell" after a former council engineer, Pix Hurrell who was involved in the development in the 1950 and 60s.
Graeme Burnett, the council's manager of utility services said in his report that the council required a 100 per cent user charge to cover the cost of the new landfill/transfer station.
Construction is underway at the Nursery site for a new concrete "push pit" to collect the rubbish which will be trucked to the massive Bonny Glen rubbish site in Manawatu.
The transfer station for Masterton will be one of 10 operating around Wairarapa, many already operating such as in Carterton. Coastal settlements at Riversdale and Castlepoint already have transfer stations, as does Mauriceville. Martinborough's transfer station will come on board at the same time as Masterton.
A Waste Management Wairarapa committee was formed in December 1997 as a joint venture between the region's three district councils, to co-ordinate the disposal of rubbish. Many sites around the Wairarapa were considered before it was decided to truck the region's rubbish out of the area to Manawatu.