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PAGES 16 & 17
The Great Southern
Star
TUESDAY, JULY 14, 2009
INSIDE
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PUBLISHED TUESDAY
56 PAGES
Ram raid - the sequel MADDISON Pearce and Ian Mackay were mopping up after the Knights Toyota showrooms in Hughes St, Leongatha, were ramraided for a second time in four weeks. The front window had been smashed, causing $4000 damage, and glass was scattered through the display area. Three bikes were stolen. The raid was the second of two robberies that took place early yesterday morning. The BP service station in Korumburra was robbed by an armed bandit. For the full story see page 5.
Dairy tax ...page 3
Real Estate ...page 25
Hard call Council set to introduce user-pays hard rubbish collection
By Bert van Bedaf
Footy news ...sport
INDEX Column 7 .................10 Opinions ..................12 Property Guide........25 Kids’ Page ...............31 Entertainment .........39 Classifieds...............42 Sport .................. 46-56
A HARD rubbish service could finally be available in South Gippsland – but it will come at a cost. Residents will be charged for the on-demand service with a likely fee of between $20 and $30 per pick-up. An old fashioned kerbside collection, where residents dump rubbish on the nature strip on certain weeks of the year, appears to have been ruled out. According to council documents, a hard waste collection service has not been provided since amalgamations in 1994, but council is again considering introducing the user-pays hard rubbish collection by September this year. Mayor Jim Fawcett told The Star that a report would shortly come before council to revisit the hard rubbish issue
yet another time. Council will be reliving a tortuous debate that travelled the length of 2006 and 2007 and breadth of numerous briefing sessions and officers’ reports, ending with the cautious line that if council were to provide a user pays hard waste collection service the likely cost would be about $75 – some of which would be borne by council. Cr Fawcett said a collection service would be demand driven and there would be a cost associated with it, similar to Bass Coast Shire Council which introduced a service on July 1. At Bass Coast residents are asked to make a booking. Each property that receives a council kerbside collection is entitled to one hard rubbish collection per financial year. The maximum volume is two cubic metres and there’s a weight limit for items. A fee of $25 applies.
Cr Fawcett said concessions had not yet been worked out and there was no intention to provide a full service, but he was not pre-empting what other councillors were thinking. He had spoken with Cr David Lewis who signalled his ideas to The Star last week. “My idea for starting a hard rubbish collection would be to have an initial ‘call out’ scheme that helps elderly people and others who may not be easily able to get hard rubbish to the tip,” Cr Lewis said. “People wanting a pick up would call the shire or a nominated contractor and the hard rubbish would be collected shortly afterwards. There would be controls to exclude things like builder’s rubble being included. To be workable, I think, the hard rubbish pick up would need to be subsidised. Continued on page 7.
Hard waste collection: Leongatha resident Anna de Bondt wants a hard waste collection to be introduced by South Gippsland Shire Council.