Downpour washes up rubbish

A Masterton woman hopes to stop people from dumping household rubbish in a stream after plastic bottles and containers were washed up near the Masterton Tennis Centre this week, following heavy rain.

Margaret Goodall lives next door to the centre and also takes care of the club's recycling and rubbish.

After the heavy rain - the first in weeks - a stream which runs along the edge of the club grounds carried milk bottles, drink bottles, an ice-cream container and even a rubber duck to where the creek disappears underground, spilling the rubbish out over the lawn.

Mrs Goodall has lived in her home for 13 years and said she has never seen anything like it before.

She spent Wednesday morning picking it up.

The stream runs through several residential properties.

"To me, people must be throwing rubbish in their own section of the creek for it to be carried on to here," she said.

"If the bottles broke, it would be a worry."

There were also tennis balls among the litter, and Mrs Goodall said they tried to pick them up if they landed in the stream but were sometimes unable to harvest them all.

She said the club runs a scheme for rubbish and recycling so she doubted the rubbish would have come from there; "all our members and visitors adhere to our recycling scheme".

Mrs Goodall hoped people would take more care with rubbish in future to stop it happening again.

"It's quite disheartening when you keep the place nice and you see all this.

"It's as bad as dumping rubbish on the roadside."

Masterton District Council environment and planning manager Sue Southey said she had not received any complaints about rubbish in the stream.

"Each property owner is responsible for maintaining the stretch of water which is on their section," she said. "We regularly advertise to remind property owners to keep streams clean. If breaches are brought to the attention of council officers, notices are issued accordingly."