Dardanup Shire Council to look into reinstating rural rubbish service after receiving petition from residents

Residents in the Shire of Dardanup’s rural areas are calling on the council to look into reinstating a rubbish collection service after expressing concern over having to drive to the tip.

The Dardanup Shire Council unanimously voted last Wednesday to enter negotiations with waste collection contractor Veolia to look into expanding its two-bin rubbish collection service to various streets in the Dardanup rural area.

The potential service expansion would cover properties within the Eastern Rise, Seaview Heights, The Dress Circle and Wellington Mill Road areas.

As well as working with Veolia to clarify the proposed service and associated costs, the Shire is also set to investigate a potential alternative solution to how bins are being emptied by the public at the Shire’s Waste Transfer Station at Banksia Road.

It comes as the council earlier received a petition from resident Ruby Trevathan, calling on the council to look into reinstating the collection service, as she and several residents faced difficulties driving to the Waste Transfer Station to dispose of their rubbish.

In her presentation to the council at Wednesday’s council meeting, Ms Trevathan outlined the difficulties she faced in driving to the Waste Transfer Station herself to empty her rubbish bins while her husband works FIFO and raising a young family.

“Carrying a 240 litre bin over the bar at the tip into the large skip bins, as a fit young person, is a task itself but certainly now this is something I struggle with as I’m almost in my third trimester of pregnancy,” she said.

“This was something bought to my attention by both families and elderly residents who signed the petition wanting a council bin service.

“For me having a bin service would be life changing, as my rubbish at the moment sits in multiple bins for two weeks until my husband comes home.

“I do a lot of composting to reduce what I put in the bins as I start to run out of bin space and certainly could have a skip bin to fill.

“I know some residents in the valley have gone with this option.

“But I feel strongly against it as I have soiled nappies, the smell and rubbish sitting there for wild animals to go through doesn’t sit well with me.”

Following the meeting, Ms Trevathan said she thought the outcome was positive and remained hopeful the council would be able to reinstate the service after collating the opinions of residents in the Henty and Ferguson areas.

“I do hope that they can, because it has been about 15 years since having a bin service in the Valley was last revisited,” she said.

“I know at that time that the majority of residents did not really want it but I think it’s changed a lot since then and I think now there’s more people in the area that do want it.

“I just hope that they can see it’s worth having and it’s been a long time since they’ve revised it.”

Dardanup Shire president Mick Bennett said the calls from residents came about after a local contractor was unable to continue collecting rubbish from some landowners in the area.

“He wasn’t able to continue in that role so everybody else has sort of come in line with what Ruby was thinking with her presentation,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot more areas to do but in the Shire it’s pretty easy because we can go up Henty and then come back down Ferguson or however it works but it just depends on the capacity of the truck.

“It’s just logistics that we need to work out.”