Community fears spike in illegal dumping as council earmarks tip closures

Council has proposed reducing operational hours of the region‘s waste facilities leaving communities worried they’ll be swimming in trash.

Anywhere could be a dumping ground

Residents of two Southern Downs towns have petitioned Southern Downs Regional Council to scrap plans to reduce the opening hours of its transfer centres, but the council argues it‘s to make critical savings.

Southern Downs Regional Council has drawn the ire of residents when it earmarked an impending reduction in opening hours as part of its draft waste reduction and recycling plan in a bid to cut its crippling $87.1m of expenses.

Killarney residents’ transfer centre would reduce its opening hours from 45 hours per week to just 28 hours a week, a move which residents say is not addressing the long-term goals of sustainability.

In the petition, residents claimed that a more than 50 per cent reduction in operational hours would have little impact on the tip‘s $373, 585 operational bill but will affect those employed at the tip.

“But will impact on one person’s ability to achieve a fair income for his work,” the petition read.

“Reducing the opening hours will reduce the income of the one person service our transfer centre.

“This, after taking away Tannymorel landfill for our country customers.”

The Summit residents were urging the council not to touch the tip’s current hours of operation at all.

Mayor Vic Pennisi said the waste had become a more complicated and costly operation for the region.

“You used to just turn up at the tip, you’d tip your rubbish out and you drove away,” he said.

“The cost of maintaining those tips was tens of thousands of dollars.”

Mr Pennisi said the costs of maintaining modern dumps is instead “tens of millions of dollars”.

The $3.5m of council money spent on a new tip cell was expected to last a little as five to six years, Mr Pennisi said.

“It depends how we do it, we might be able to extend that to even 10 years but then we’d have to cap it at a cost.”

Mr Pennisi said he believed this paired with “extra compliance costs” only increased financial pressure from the council.

“We used to have more people on the ground and fewer people in administration and now we have more people in administration.”

It was about finding a balance between the two, Mr Pennisi said that was where the challenge lay.

“In local government, you’ve either got to find more money to deliver what you’re doing for the extra compliance or you’ve got to try and reduce what you do.

Mr Pennisi said the call to reduce hours was not set in stone.

“We’ve gone out to the community and said ‘is this an acceptable solution?’,” he said.

Mr Pennisi said the task ahead for the council was to focus on “core business”.

It comes after the council revealed it was under pressure to secure $30m to upgrade the region‘s failing sewerage system.

The council acknowledged it received the petitions, with the concerns of Killarney residents forwarded to the manager for waste.