Friday 6 March 2009

Hard waste collection should happen

With the 582 Dengue fever cases recorded in Cairns, rising by 10 to 15 every day, and the first recorded death, Councillor Robert Pyne wants more action from Cairns Regional Council.

Last month he tried unsuccessfully to get a motion passed for a hard waste pick up, but Council officials debunked the proposal because of costs.

"I maintain this is something Council should do at the end of every dry season, Councillor Pyne says. "It addresses, in a positive way, cyclone preparedness, dengue fever and electric ants."

"At the time there is no indemnity on tip fees, other than the exception on dumping old car tires," Pyne said.

He is angered by Council's lack of support for such a clean up, with contradicted the advice from Queensland Health's Tropical Health Population team.

"I spoke to some of our team and yes, for dengue control they think a hard waste collection would be of more benefit that a green waste collection," Heather Robertson of Tropical Health Population said.

"It would have to be managed well because if hard waste was left to accumulate, waiting for pickup, it would become a increased dengue mozzie breeding risk."

In an email to all Councillors yesterday, Pyne urged Councillors against advising people that a hard waste collection would be of no benefit in addressing the dengue outbreak.

A recent meeting between Queensland Health and Cairns Regional Council's Environmental Health staff, a total indemnity on all waste dumping was discussed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know about a waste collection. But I *DO* know that the code enforcement team, run by Peter Tabulo working for Noel Briggs, is a completely incompetent group that should be completely replaced.

They continually provide councillors with bullshit statistics about complaints and resolution times - and yet as every neighbourhood knows, continual complaints about continuing breaches of local law go ignored by code enforcement for YEARS. Their operational statistics are the laughing stock of every other council department.

Their molasses-like response at the start of dengue season has been the proximate cause of such a huge outbreak this year.

Tabulo MUST GO!

Anonymous said...

I would completely concur with Trinity Trickster above - Tabulo & Briggs should be sent packing. Not only they, but I think there are a hard-line clique at Council who are very happy to have their bureaucracy running as they wish, & damn the residents. I also think the infection has long-ago spread to the Planning Dept, who continue to approve over-the-top tropically-inappropriate developments, citing that they're Code Assessable, & that the Council will be sued if they are not passed.
I dare say most developers just want to do the development, make the money, & get on with the next one. If the Planning Dept makes reasonable requests to changes to their designs, then I'm sure they'd capitulate fairly quickly. Developers are not interested in spending theirt days in court.
This is what Val & most of the new councillors don't get. Blake & Bonneau & Cochrane are pro-development, so they're not going to inform the baby councillors about all this.
On hard rubbish collection - many major cities manage to do this without too much drama. I know, I used to live in one. A couple of weeks before the collection, you are given a collection date. Say, a suburb or three at a time. On that date, all the rubbish is collected. You don't ask the entire town to put out their hard rubbish at the same time - that would lead to chaos.
Not having hard rubbish collection makes it almost impossible for those who
a) don't have a car, &/or access to a trailer/ute, or
b) can't afford dumpsters to get rid of their rubbish, or
c) due to whatever disability, cannot physically organise hard rubbish disposal.
It's highly discriminatory.
When I first moved to Cairns 12 years ago, we had hard rubbish collection. Rob Pyne is right - & we should support him all the way on this.
You only have to look at the amount of rubbishy stuff that is left around charity bins to know that hard rubbish collection is the way to go.
And whilst we're at it - how about reopened the Buy Back Shops at all tips, & letting them make some money, & re-use and recycle unwanted goods. In this difficult economic climate, this makes a lot of sense.

Anonymous said...

Lillian, agree with your comments item 1. There is little game that has to be played out after the Development Approal is given. It's called the Negotiated Decision. The Council votes on the recommendation of the Planning Officer's and the conditions implimented for the Development Approval. Usually, if the conditions are not to the Developers liking, they come back with a Negotiated Decision. This goes back before Council and unless the Public are watching for this, it can slip by unnoticed and
we are faced with a fait acompli.
Item 2 - Inorganic Rubbish Collections. We too came from a City that operated these successfully. We also had a free recycling centre where you could take your unwanted stuff for recycling. Of course the inorganic rubbish collection was a hilight for the Market Seller. They would prowl the streets in their vans, picking out items they could sell at the Markets. The more affluent the area, the greater the pickings. The downside of this was the mess left behind after they had picked through it all. Still it would be worth trialling at least.

Anonymous said...

The six Councillors who always vote together on insensitive/unwanted development, along with the urging of Tabulo and Hawkes, voted down the hard waste pick up solely on cost. I heard Bl(Sn)ake on ABC radio warning that rates would go up if such a decision was taken.

The biggest problem with this council is that they, especially Aunty Val, defer to recommendations from staff, who are unelected and also have VALUES. Make your own decision and policy and staff are supposed to be there to implement it.

For example, a recent development in Yorkies Knob was approved despite a good number of angered locals. Tabulo kept ranting about how the area is zoned residential 3 un der the Cairns Plan, and this development fitted this category. BUT, isn't it funny that zoning is changed all the time to fit the situation, so even if your area is residential 1, the 'right' developer can get it rezoned for units quite easily.

Why won't they listen to the people?