Mordialloc Food and Wine and other Kingston festivals under threat as council faces rising recycling costs

POPULAR festivals in Melbourne’s south including the Mordialloc Food and Wine Festival and Carols by Candlelight are in danger of being axed as councils grapple with the rising cost of recycling.

KINGSTON’S much-loved festivals are under threat and households face another rate hike as the council grapples with the rising cost of recycling.

The ever-popular Mordialloc Food and Wine Festival, Globe to Globe, Kingston Carols, Beat and Eats and Australia Day are in the firing line as councillors try to recoup $400,000.

Homeowners now face a rate rise of $31 per household to cover new waste recycling costs, rather than the predicted a $13.

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Mayor Steve Staikos said the “ongoing volatility of the recycling market” meant local governments were facing even greater costs.

“While many councils are passing on the increase in full to ratepayers, Kingston Council has decided to share the burden of the increased costs and will pay $6 per household and pass on the remaining $25 increase,” Cr Staikos said.

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That $6 per household equates to $400,000 and the money could be taken from the council’s festival budget, meaning some events would no longer be viable.

Cr Staikos said taking $400,000 from the festivals budget would mean “completely dismantling” the existing program.

The popular Mordialloc Food, Wine and Music Festival could be in doubt. Picture: Valeriu Campan

“We might have to come back and say we’re not holding three festivals, we’re holding one, or none,” he said.

Council officers will conduct a review and Cr Staikos said they may find it would be better to hold one big festival that would attract corporate support instead of three small festivals that would not generate the same business outcomes.

The extra charges and the changes to the festival budget were debated at a special council meeting on May 14.

Cr Georgina Oxley argued $25 was too much for some residents and suggested an increase of $21.

However, reducing the charge by $4 per household would leave the council with another $250,000 to find in the budget and Cr Staikos said that could be “the difference between that pavilion going ahead, or those netball courts being built or that drain being replaced.”

All but Cr Oxley voted in favour of a $25 increase.

China’s decision to stop accepting 24 categories of solid waste, disrupted the export of more than 600,000 tonnes of material out of Australia each year, leaving councils to find new ways of managing recycling.

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