Brisbane City Council spends over $320,000 to clean barbecues each year

SELFISH public park barbecue users who fail to clean up after themselves are not only stopping others from enjoying a great Aussie pastime, they’re also costing ratepayers more than $320,000 a year in Council clean-up fees.

THE great weekend pastime of a barbecue at a local park costs the Brisbane Council more than $320,000 annually in cleaning fees.

Not that the council is complaining about the bill although it would be grateful if everyone who used the public facilities cleaned the hot plates afterwards.

The BCC services its region with almost 1000 barbecues across 2000 parks and that includes the installation of some 200 hotplates over the past two years.

The BCC services its region with almost 1000 barbecues across 2000 parks.

BCC’s environment, parks and sustainability chairman Cr David McLachlan said the council was proud that it provided free barbecues within its parks and overall it “invests more than $327,000 to clean 110,000 barbeque plates each year”.

“Brisbane City Council is committed to creating more to see and do right across the city and has installed close to 200 additional barbecues over the past two years and continues to expand facilities in our park lands,” Cr McLachlan said.

“Throwing a snag on the barbie is an Aussie tradition, but there’s nothing more disappointing than arriving at the local barbecue to find someone’s left-overs still on the plate, so make sure you play it fair–- share with others and clean up when you’re done.”

He said each barbecue area was serviced at least once a week although the most popular destinations were cleaned twice daily.

The most popular destinations are Vic Lucas Park, Bulimba, Moora Park, Shorncliffe, The Lake Parklands, Forest Lake, Mt Coot-tha Reserve and South Bank Parklands, according to Cr McLachlan.