A fortune has been spent on landscaping the approach to George Bolt Drive and on a swish tree-lined bike path. It makes a nice introduction for the visitors who arrive at Auckland Airport. So long as they don’t look to closely.
A cat's carcass, a filthy mattress and more than a dozen plastic orange bottles are among rubbish that has been found dumped in South Auckland, leaving a local resident fuming and disgusted.
Retired real estate agent Rodney Dunn told the Herald illegal dumping had been a problem in the area for years and he had repeatedly notified Auckland Council about it, but had not been satisfied with its response.
A hobby photographer, Dunn has been taking photos of rubbish he's come across since November last year and posting them to a Facebook page he's set up called Stop The Rubbish.
"To be blunt, I've had a gutsful. I'm really sick of it," said Dunn.
"I'm getting really annoyed because no one's taking it seriously."
The latest spate of rubbish dumping, which Dunn spotted this week, comes after Auckland Mayor Phil Goff announced in February that the council would set up a hotline that residents could use to report incidents of illegal dumping.
Dunn said he had found countless items - including burnt-out car bodies and completed voting papers - before, but the 66-year-old was particularly horrified by what he saw last Thursday.
"Rubbish - huge amounts of it. There's a stream down there that's blocked. That dead cat was pretty horrific."
As someone who loves animals, Dunn was initially reluctant to share the photo of the rotting cat's carcass on Facebook due to its graphic nature, but then decided it might shock people into taking action.
Orange plastic bottles have been dumped on top of piles of household rubbish. Photo / Rodney Dunn
He had seen rubbish dumped all around Alfriston and Takanini during the last year, but said the worst of it was on Takanini School Rd.
"When I go down there I'm very cautious where I walk. There's dead animals there. You can just smell the stench from the dirty nappies and all sorts of stuff."
Dunn believed the general public was concerned by illegal dumping, but most people were too busy to do something about it.
Piles of illegal rubbish is blocking a south Auckland stream, a local resident says. Photo / Rodney Dunn
A filthy mattress has been discarded on land in south Auckland. Photo / Rodney Dunn
People who dumped rubbish did it because they could get away with it, he said.
"The penalties need to be increased. The council need to put signage around.
"They tell me they've got seven cameras to cover the whole of the Auckland area, well how ridiculous is that?"
Auckland Council's waste planning manager Parul Sood said the council tried to investigate every report of illegal dumping and looked through rubbish for evidence of who was responsible for each case.
"In the appropriate circumstances we undertake flyer drops in the immediate area to encourage residents to notify us when they see illegal dumping happening, and regularly check hot spots."
