Illegal rubbish dumping spiralling across Hume and Sunbury

ILLEGAL dumping is blowing a hole in Hume Council’s budget, with Sunbury continuously rubbised.

ILLEGALLY dumped rubbish and litter weighing as much as 600 male African elephants was collected by Hume Council over a period of 12 months.

Hume Council’s Sustainability Report 2016-17 revealed the council collected a whopping 4250 tonnes of illegally dumped material during the 2016-17 financial year at a cost of $1.8 million.

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Cr Jack Medcraft said hot spots for illegal dumping in Sunbury included the outskirts of the Canterbury Hill estate and Racecourse Rd, while nearby areas of the semirural Diggers Rest and Wildwood were strewn with rubbish.

“I think a lot of the dumpers are not residents of Hume as it is hard to get a handle on why it is happening — residents get two hard rubbish and two free tip drop offs each year,” he said.

With the costs climbing for the council, Cr Medcraft said more resources devoted to roaming staff and CCTV cameras would be worth the investment.

“Other councils literally have hit squads of retired police officers who work patrolling their rubbish dumping hot spots, working towards finding out who the dumpers are and helping secure a prosecution,” he said.

Sunbury councillor Jack Medcraft with a dumped tyre a an historic bluestone aquaduct outside of Sunbury last year. Picture: mark Wilson

Hume sustainable infrastructure and services director Peter Waite said over the past 12 months, the council had attended 5280 sites to collect strewn litter and dumped rubbish.

“Illegally dumped rubbish in Hume, whether it’s a food wrapper or boxes of waste, is damaging to Hume City’s landscape, environment and visual appearance,” Mr Waite said.

“There is no excuse for illegally dumping rubbish.”

On top of this the council spent $200,000 on graffiti removal during 2016-17, much to the dismay of pensioner Alan Douglas, who oversees a graffiti cleaning project.

Mr Douglas said graffiti tagging was against the law and could remain on a person’s criminal record for their entire life.

“Parents need to pass this message onto their kids,” he said. “When you go for a job people ask for police reports and bosses will say why would I hire this person?”

To report illegal rubbish dumping in Hume phone 1300 HUME CLEAN (1300 486 325).

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