Ratepayers' Alliance Welcome Private Offer To Pick Up After Auckland Council Abandons Bins

7 JULY 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance is welcoming the efforts of private waste collection providers picking up after the Council in North Shore and Albany, after the Council dumped new recycling bins on homeowners, without collecting the old 140-litre blue wheelie bins.

Jo Holmes, a spokesperson for the Ratepayers’ Alliance, says:

“Only Auckland Council would dump wheelie bins on householders without making provision for the old ones to be removed right away. With some irony it is the private operators – the very competition the Council is trying to force out with its proposed reform – offering residents a timely pick up of the old Council bins.”

“A month ago we launched a briefing paper explaining how the Council is trying to extend its expensive and inefficient monopoly of waste collection into Albany and Rodney – the only areas left where householder enjoy competition. According to Council documents, the changes are likely to see the cost of domestic rubbish collection double for tens of thousands of households North of the Harbour Bridge.”

“A Ratepayers’ Alliance petition calling on Councillors Wayne Walker and Penny Webster to provide an opt-out provision for householders who don’t use or want the Council’s new services has received more than 2,100 signatures.”

“When it comes to waste, it seems you just can’t trust Wayne Walker, Penny Webster and their officials. Despite the suggestion from a Council official that our campaign material may be ‘misleading’ the Council has been unable to point us to a single inaccuracy in our research.”

“The Council’s backlash against our campaign, while not actually being able to point out anything that is wrong, is very telling of the culture of obfuscation inside the organisation.”

ENDS

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