Community representatives Jeff McKillop and Chrissie Fletcher delivered a petition with 49 signatures to Tenterfield Shire Council Offices on Friday, attesting that they do not want the mandatory wheelie bin pickup due to start July 1. 

Residents received a letter from council a month ago advising of the implementation of the 12-month trial, following community consultation. 

“There has been no community consultation,” Mrs Fletcher said.

Residents currently use their local Waste Transfer Station, open two half-days a week, for both recycling and general rubbish, and Mrs Fletcher and Mr McKillop say the residents are happy with that arrangement. 

Recycling is free and general rubbish costs $2 per garbage bag, with three free vouchers per rates notice.  

The station is six month’s old, converted from the previous land fill site at a cost of $150,000.

Mr McKillop said residents are now being told they will be charged for wheelie bin collection, either $290 a year for a 120 litre bin or $373 for a 240 litre one. 

This will be for general rubbish only, as recycling still has to be taken to the waste transfer station.

“Some residents are set back two kilometres from the road, some have grids to cross, there a lot of single older women who would struggle to take the bin out,” Mrs Fletcher said.

She suspects recycling efforts will be hampered by the new arrangement, with people reluctant to walk past their wheelie bin to take their recycling to the transfer station. She said many residents are so vigilant in their recycling that they have little or no other rubbish to dispose of.

She said council has assigned 90 bins but as well as households this number includes vacant lots, homes belonging to ‘weekend warriors’ and houses for sale. In addition to the 49 signing the petition, Mrs Fletcher said others had contacted council directly with their concerns.

“We’re upset,” Mrs Fletcher said.

“Everyone’s upset.”

Mayor Peter Petty, who is also a councillor for A Ward which includes Liston, said he fully respected residents’ concerns and council could have handled the situation better, but now it’s a matter of getting on with the trial after its resolution was passed at the March meeting.

He said the trial would continue for 12 months when it will be reviewed at all levels, financially as well as to whether residents want to continue. He said it was necessary to make it a mandatory service, rather than opt-in, for financial reasons.

“We had meetings about the waste transfer stations and some people did indicate that they wanted a collection service,” Mayor Petty said.

“The bigger picture is reducing waste to landfill.”

Mayor Petty raised the matter as an item of Business Without Notice at last week’s May council meeting, saying that as a councillor for A Ward he was aware of issues regarding the implementation of the service particularly the campaign to inform the community of the proposal.

His motion that the mandatory kerbside collection service along Mt Lindesay Road be restricted to those properties north of Legume was supported by his fellow A Ward councillor Gary Verri but was not seconded and lapsed.