Charlotte Varcoe
A SERIES of Cape Douglas community members have pushed back on a Grant District Council decision to rollout mobile garbage collection to their residential homes.
Council endorsed the decision at its meeting in March 2022 with a petition since being presented to elected members, triggering a full report expected to be tabled in future council meetings this year.
In July 2021, councillor Barry Kuhl put a notice of motion to elected members requesting a strategic review to consider the expansion of council’s bin service.
The following month, council sent out a survey to Cape Douglas residents requesting feedback on whether they would approve of a bin service to be implemented at their properties.
There were 40 dwellings which were surveyed with 22 voting against the decision, 16 voting for the decision and two dwellings not responding.
Residents received a notice from council in September 2021 stating Cape Douglas would not be included in the mobile garbage bin rollout the following January due to “indifferent support” from residents with a couple of “proposed extensions” also not proceeding.
Council also requested an investigation into potential rollout of the service to the entire district, with the letter stating “any endorsed changes will be communicated to residents”.
It was not until a March 2022 meeting with elected members that a council resolution was made in confidence that the expansion of the bin service be implemented to all areas of the map provided – of which Cape Douglas was not included.
A further staff recommendation was passed that council consult residents in the “gazetted township and settlements” on the potential for the services to come into effect on July 1, 2023.
According to the report – which has since been released to the public – Cape Douglas was classed as a gazetted township.
Cape Douglas residents received a letter from council in January this year, stating the mobile bin service to the township was endorsed by council as part of the stage two rollout which would begin in July.
Cape Douglas resident Ralph Gilbertson soon rallied residents and provided council with a petition against the decision claiming they were not consulted for the ultimate decision.
“What got us was there was no consultation between the letter we received in September in 2021 and the letter we received in January 2023 asking for our views,” Mr Gilbertson told The Border Watch.
“The reason for our frustration is there was a lack of consultation and if it was done in a constitutional way and had the vote been 80 per cent with some communication we would be quite happy with that.
“But to have a local government entity moving forward in such a cavalier fashion we think is inappropriate and wrong.”
Mr Gilbertson said the Cape Douglas community would take care of their own rubbish which included picking up waste along the beachfront.
“We clean up after ourselves and clean the beach up,” he said.
“We even get the community together on Clean Up Australia Day because we are a very proud community and respect the fact we take care of what we have.”
Mr Gilbertson there were other concerns expressed by the community including financial and humane.
This included the proposed fee charged for the service.
According to the original notice given to residents, the fee for the mobile bin service would be $270 per annum.
“There is also an environmental issue with the strong winds down in Cape Douglas,” Mr Gilbertson said.
“If the council is picking the bins up every fortnight and I am down there only for one week and leave my bins out to be collected, there is a chance it will be blown over by the wind.
“We are working from the perspective of the local government doing things properly and transparently and all we are after is the decision that was laid back to stop the mobile garbage bin service expansion to terminate at Wash Lane.”
Mr Gilbertson said residents were asking council to “go back and rescind” the decisions which were made stating there were people who were on a pension and there is a human element to the decision.
This included Cape Douglas pensioner Dennis Widdison who claimed to have generated only a small amount of rubbish per week.
Grant Council chief executive officer Darryl Whicker said the planned rollout included an extension to a number of areas recognising council had a role to “manage waste as an essential service”.
“We have recently received a petition from some aggrieved ratepayers from the Cape Douglas area and we will be bringing back a report to a future council meeting for a decision to be made against their request to not roll out this bin service,” Mr Whicker said.
“Councils role is to provide waste services and sometime ago via a council report a decision was made to try and extend that as far and wide as possible and there has been a series of consultations over the last couple of years.”
Mr Whicker said the council had extended its bin routes on multiple occasions and each time there has been conflict.
“We will be bringing a full report to a future council meeting to take account of the community’s perception, the process that has been taken and any lessons that are learned and then that is for council to make a decision,” Mr Whicker said.
“We have had early contact requesting an internal review but the request is yet to be completely formalised by the residents of Cape Douglas so we are awaiting that result.
“The decision was not made at a micro-level at Cape Douglas alone, it was made to expand waste services as essential services which are part of local government obligations.”
The report detailing the waste bin collection service is expected to be presented to elected members in the coming months.
