The Masterton District Council says rural residents need to take responsibility for their own waste and learn to use the rubbish dumps at the designated opening times.
Waste minimalisation officer Peter Ruddock was responding to rural tip users' complaints about tips not being open frequently enough to meet their rubbish disposal
requirements.
"Change always generates some discontentment as new procedures are adopted," Mr Ruddock said.
"I would like to see local transfer station users take responsibility for their rubbish generated and make the choice to dispose of it in an environmentally conscientious manner."
The managers of Castlepoint Holiday Park and Motels, Ian and Pauline Holland, told the Times-Age yesterday that they were put in an untenable position because health and safety laws required them to remove waste on a daily basis but they could not take it to the dump because it was closed five days a week.
Mr Ruddock said as a commercial entity the holiday camp does not pay rates for the transfer station and they could in fact store the waste on site if it was kept in a secure and sanitary place.
The Hollands said they had asked for a key to the tip but were turned down by the council.
Mr Ruddock said yesterday the council could not give keys out to some people and not others, as this would leave them open to accusations of favouritism. He pointed out that issuing keys to people in the past had led to abuse.
The contractor in charge of the transfer station, Bruce Laing, suggested a walk-in access to the tip so people could bring in council rubbish bags at their own discretion.
Mr Ruddock said this option too was open to abuse and if they allowed it at one transfer station they would have to allow it across the whole region.
Roading contractor Master Roads does a rubbish collection run on Mondays, and an additional collection on Thursdays during peak season.
Mr Ruddock said people that needed to use the dump more frequently could arrange to dump rubbish at the same time as the contractor.
