MORE than 9000 people have signed a petition to plead with Lake Macquarie City Council to bring back weekly kerbside general rubbish collection.
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General kerbside rubbish has been collected fortnightly within Lake Macquarie since the council’s new waste system was introduced on July 30. Green waste, including food scraps and grass clippings, is collected weekly.
But Lake Macquarie councillors – Kevin Baker, Jason Pauling, and Nick Jones – said they had since received “numerous reports” of putrid, overflowing bins “crawling” with maggots and flies.
A Change.org petition to reinstate the weekly rubbish collection had received more than 9000 signatures within two days.
“A lot of people are reporting problems with nappies being left in the bin for two weeks,” Cr Baker said. “Anyone who has had a kid knows how much bins reek of nappies, let alone two week’s worth that have been sitting out in the heat. People are also having massive problems with maggots. Bins are crawling in maggots. The Council-supplied green kitchen waste bags are liquefying.”
The Liberal councillors said they had called an extraordinary meeting to “implore” Lake Macquarie City Council to reinstate weekly pickups of the general waste to give residents a reprieve, particularly over the hot Christmas and summer period.
“People are cranky. People are talking about genuine issues. This isn’t about people having a whinge, this is about people who are dealing with these problems. We can’t wait until February to discuss this,” Cr Baker said.
A council spokesperson said regular waste collection services would continue every day except Christmas Day, and that the council had a range of measures to help residents manage their waste generation over Christmas.
“Council is committed to continuing to assist the community as we move into the busy Christmas and New Year period, and encourages any residents who would like to know about available support, to contact us.”
She said the three-bin service offered substantial long-term financial and environmental benefits.
“It will reduce the amount of waste going to landfill by an estimated 17,000 tonnes a year, and offset increasing annual waste disposal costs,” she said.
“Since service start, more than 10,000 tonnes of organic waste have been processed... saving an additional $500,000 in waste levy charges and extending the life of our only landfill at Awaba.”
The council had received a small percentage of complaints in the past week relating to “summer pests”.
The spokesperson said that of 8000 phone, email, and face-to-face inquiries relating to the three-bin service, 76 were complaints – representing 0.04 per cent of the people living in the city.
“Over the past six months, we also received 10,000 comments and tags on our social media accounts in relation to the service.
“Council has received 14 inquiries from the community over the phone and through email relating to managing their bins in summer. Three of these were specific complaints about maggots.
“Council also received 15 comments and messages through social media in the last week relating to summer pests.”
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