Posted: January 11, 2012

Southern Downs Regional Council’s Director of Planning & Environment Ken Harris has responded to recent public comments about the locking-up of unmanned waste facilities in the southern region.

“We acknowledge the concerns people are raising about illegal dumping, however, Council had very little choice following the introduction of the new Queensland Waste Levy,” Mr Harris explained.

“The key point is Council had to do something to control the disposal of commercial and industrial waste at these facilities,” he continued.

“Council must now pay the State Government $35 per tonne for commercial and industrial waste deposited to land fill,” he said. “That cost needs to be on-charged to those users, however, we had no way of regulating that at unmanned facilities.

“The cost of putting in supervisors at those seven facilities was beyond Council’s current budget and would have been a large financial impost on ratepayers.

“It was a case of either shut them down or limit the access to local residents through key-locking.

“This was the most cost effective solution and helped address concerns that local residents were already raising about inappropriate dumping at these waste stations.

“The overwhelming preference voiced by the public during our consultation meetings in September last year was to provide local key access, rather than taking more drastic action.”

Mr Harris said that far from being unusual, key-locking of unmanned facilities was a common solution across Queensland, and has been successful already at four waste facilities in the northern end of the Southern Downs.

“At the end of the day we already have four key locked facilities that have operated very well for seven to 10 years and key-locking of facilities is very acceptable solution to control the disposal of waste.

“Council is well aware of the fact that there will be a period of adjustment as has happened with the four previous facilities and Council is expecting short term issues with illegal dumping and wilful damage at these facilities.

“Most people want to do the right thing with regards to waste,” he said. “So far there has been limited dumping, however, overwhelmingly people have been very cooperative.

“We have had a few instances where people have called to get a new key as their key ‘sticks’ or doesn’t work, and they have been issued with new keys.”

Council is currently looking at the installation of electronic monitoring to assist with monitoring at unmanned waste facilities.

ENDS