Frances Harris says she is yet to get a response from the council about her concerns for Whanganui's rubbish collection system. Photo / Mike Tweed
Frances Harris says she is yet to get a response from the council about her concerns for Whanganui's rubbish collection system. Photo / Mike Tweed
Springvale resident Frances Harris is so concerned about the future of Whanganui's rubbish collection system that she started a petition to the Whanganui District Council.
Harris is asking the council to provide "a simple kerbside rubbish collection", with independent collection company Waste Management's wheelie bin hire scheme due tostart on December 31.
Waste Management announced in July that from the end of the year single-use plastic rubbish bags will no longer be collected in the Whanganui district.
Harris's petition, which has more than 100 signatures, claims that the new Waste Management system is "overly complicated and technology driven", which will in turn "severely disadvantage" certain parts of the Whanganui community.
"It took me a couple of days to get the signatures, and they were hard fought - not because people were reluctant, but because it was hard for me to approach them," Harris said.
"I couldn't just sit around and fume though, I had to stir my stumps and head to town."
Harris said she moved to Whanganui from New Plymouth two-and-a-half years ago and was "flabbergasted" that the city didn't have a rates-funded rubbish collection system in place, and that her rates were "$600 higher".
"To me, it seems like one of the basics for a council to provide, like water and sewerage.
"One of the people I talked while I was getting signatures said they didn't mind paying for the arts, but that it 'really would be nice to have a rubbish collection'.
"It made me wonder, what does the average citizen in Whanganui get for paying their rates?
"Whanganui has a large elderly population as well, and some of them can't just drive down to the Midtown Transfer Station with their rubbish or use a smartphone to operate the PayAsYouGo system."
Harris said she had voted in the Whanganui District Council's 2018 household waste survey for the option of a rates-funded kerbside rubbish collection service and a new kerbside recycling collection service.
"That option was meant to add $4.20 per week to our rates with a full recycling system, and now it's going to be $4.60 and you'll get your rubbish collected and that's it.
"I think all our rubbish and recycling should be collected at the gate; that would be the ultimate in my view.
"At this point though, I'll settle with just having my rubbish collected at the gate, thank you very much."
Harris said that despite "numerous" phone calls and an email, she hadn't had a response from the council about her petition which she had requested be tabled at the next council meeting.
Whanganui District Councillor Rob Vinsen. Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui District Councillor Rob Vinsen said a rates-funded rubbish collection system was "simple, no doubt about it", but would also be costly.
"A rates-funded system is generally 'one size fits all', and it means that every household is charged, irrespective of the amount of waste they generate," Vinsen said.
"There will always be people who are dissatisfied under a rates-based system, and people who make the effort to minimise their waste the most would get the most penalised."
Even if a rates-based system was introduced, it would take a minimum of 12 months to be fully implemented, Vinsen said.
"There would be a full consultation process, and waiting for the next rating year and things like that.
"If you're locked into contracts with waste companies for 12 months, which a lot of people are, we'd have to give them time for those contracts to run out as well."
Vinsen said the council was currently doing another waste review, with the results due by the end of October.
"We'll be considering the future of Whanganui's waste service, and whether we stay with the private market situation or issue a rates-funded contract, or if we were to something as a council, what form would that be in.
"There's a lot of work and research going into it at the moment."
Mayor Hamish McDouall has been contacted for comment.
