Above: Strong winds this week have blown hard waste waiting for collection across streets in Keysborough and Springvale South.By Nathan Johnston
STRONG winds have scattered mattresses and debris sitting for weeks in Keysborough and Springvale South streets as the Greater Dandenong’s hard waste collection debacle continues.
Keysborough South Ward councillor Peter Brown will call on Greater Dandenong mayor Maria Sampey to make a public apology on behalf of the council for the collection delays.
In an email sent to council staff, which was also sent to local newspapers, Cr Brown said the council was now facing public liability risks after Tuesday and Wednesday’s winds threw the rubbish across the roads and worsened an already dire situation.
“I drove around tonight (Tuesday night) for some time surveying the devastation of waste and came to the conclusion that not only does council have a duty of care but there is a substantial public liability, public risk issue here,” Cr Brown said in the email.
“For five weeks in the Springvale South and Keysborough area, the council has failed to mitigate the risk.
“It is not as if there is a strike beyond our control.
“The collection of waste is within our control.”
Cr Brown said the delays in the rubbish collection had prompted what he believed to be an unprecedented number of complaints from residents.
“I have spent more than nine years on council in both Springvale and Dandenong and no issue until now has caused the ‘silent majority’ of residents to become, understandably, so vocal,” he said.
“Given the council elections are just around the corner, I would not be surprised if the residents threw out the councillors with the rubbish, the problem being that neither would be collected if the present situation continues.”
Greater Dandenong chief executive Carl Wulff said he understood the complaints from residents about the state of their streets, and said an apology and an explanation for the delays would be printed in local newspapers next week.
“We’re not happy with the scenes either,” he said.
“Some unforeseen circumstances have meant that it has been an unfortunate exercise for us, and we’ll be looking to adopt a different approach in 2006.
“We’ve experienced twice the normal volume of hard waste, which is slowing the process down.
“Normally we pick up 1700 to 1800 tonnes but this year we’re looking at well over 3000 tonnes, which is a huge increase.
“The contractors are running eight trucks when they normally run five.
“The wet weather and wind in the last couple of days has not helped, but we’re targeting next week some time as when it will be completed,” Mr Wulff said.
But Cr Brown wrote in his email to council staff that the problem should be fixed immediately.
“We have been given one excuse after another for the failure to rectify the problem, and given a Yellow Pages full of waste contractors available to work, it is now incomprehensible to me that we let this dangerous fiasco continue,” he said.
