April 3, 2018
Bags of rubbish left piled on the ground after the Easter long weekend’s events at Maidenwell have left at least one local resident fuming.
A large skip bin in the Maidenwell Sportsgrounds was not only filled to the brim on Tuesday morning, but bags of rubbish were piled around its base.
The same scene was repeated at the nearby Maidenwell Waste Transfer Station, adjacent to Kingaroy-Cooyar Road.
The Maidenwell resident said the town skip bins were emptied last Thursday by contractor J.J. Richards, but were overflowing again within a day or two.
“This is not the first time this has happened,” he told southburnett.com.au
“Our rates pay for cleaning up this costly mess.”
He said that ever since caravans and camping had been encouraged in the sportsground, the problems with garbage had increased.
“It does nothing valuable for the town itself, except perhaps for the pub (which might) increase its value,” he said.
“It’s no good saying it’s all good for the community. For residents, no it’s not!”
He said the garbage bags would remain on the ground until someone from Council drove up to collect them, as J.J. Richards’ employees “weren’t allowed to get out of their trucks”.
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South Burnett Mayor Keith Campbell said Maidenwell was not the only town to have a garbage problem after big public events.
Similar issues have happened at the Durong Waste Transfer Station after large events at Boondooma Homestead.
Chahpingah’s Waste Transfer Station has also had issues associated with the Burrandowan Picnic Races and Burrandowan Campdraft.
He said the problem was Council staff were often not notified in advance when large events were taking place.
“If our Environment and Waste Services section get advance notice that a big event is coming up, they can arrange extra bins or pickups to take care of it,” the Mayor said.
“When they find out after an event, though, they have to be reactive rather than proactive.
“This takes more time and it’s understandable some ratepayers get upset.”
The Mayor said waste disposal was an issue all large public events needed to take into account when they were being planned.
“I’d like to ask all our region’s committees who organise big public events to give our Waste Services section advance notice,” the Mayor said.
“Council can assist, but it’s a two-way street.”
In reply to your Easter hangover in Maidenwell article. It’s just too easy for people to sit in their houses & knock the people that are working hard trying to breath some life back into a little country town, the community group should be applauded not put down. The Easter running festival was a huge success & of course you are going to have rubbish left behind. The oval rubbish was all bagged & stacked around the base of the bin neatly, not left to litter the whole area, & was all picked up & disposed of by J J Richards early on Tuesday morning. As for the dump bins – runners, campers & other visitors can not be held responsible for that mess. Things like tyres, old mattresses, timber, metal pipe, old irrigation pipe, even washing machines, TVs & broken furniture is at the hands of locals & people bringing it in from the nearby Toowoomba council area NOT campers. The dump bins were emptied Tuesday morning after the Easter event & again today Friday & guess what they were overflowing again, just like every pick up day, & there were no campers in sight. Whoever this person is need to get a life & become involved in town activities they might even enjoy it. (Pictures are available)