Waipā councillors were expected to defer a proposal to change the district’s kerbside refuse service when they discussed it at their Long Term Plan workshop and briefing day yesterday.
It’s all rubbish
The workshop was open to the public but held after The News went to press.
Elected members discussed the proposal at another workshop day on Monday and their response to the council taking over the service from contractors was lukewarm because of the costs involved and because the service would not cover the rural areas, retirement villages and body corporates.
It would also not be a ‘pay as you throw’ scheme nor allow for people who are frugal with their rubbish by reducing and composting waste. They would get no financial benefit from the proposal.
Four other workshops were held on that day, two of them in public excluded on the Cambridge Water Tower and commercial opportunities for Matos Segedin Drive in Cambridge.
The other two were on a regional rate for public transport and budget revisions for the Long Term Plan.
Cambridge Water Tower
The News asked why the water tower was being discussed behind closed doors given the public interest in it.
The historic category A protected tower is an earthquake risk and will cost more than $6 million to repair or $800,000 to demolish.
The council told us it was to “enable the free and frank provision of advice and opinions by and between officers and elected members”.
Roy Pilott
It was also to protect legal privilege, which The News editor Roy Pilott said he accepted – but he added he was frustrated that issues which were discussed at length in public, and through The News pages, were again being discussed in private by councillors.
“What is free and frank when our readers are constantly denied the opportunity to hear elected councillors’ opinions before decisions are made?” he said.
The rubbish service proposal came about following a request from elected members at a workshop last month where they asked for the food waste budget to be reallocated to a new refuse system.
It was seen as more beneficial and provide greater value to households, Transportation manager Bryan Hudson told them this week.
Clare St Pierre
The proviso was that a council contracted service should be cheaper for the majority of residents.
Councillors this week dismissed the proposal with Cr Clare St Pierre saying she has whittled her rubbish down through reducing food and plastic waste.
The proposal would penalise those who had done the same, she seemed to imply.
It was not expected to get any traction from councillors yesterday who have far bigger things to worry about with rising costs, debt levels and infrastructural pressures.
