KEY POINTS:
Waitakere residents are fighting the prospect of losing their annual inorganic rubbish collection, saying it will lead to illegal dumping over banks in gullies.
The city council says there is no evidence to suggest illegal dumping will increase significantly if there is no collection.
It says changing to an on-demand, user pays system will save up to $589,000 a year and will help address unkempt roadside and health and safety concerns.
Despite a proposed 7.4 per cent rates rise being based on a "slimmed down budget", residents' calls to keep the household junk collection dominate submissions to the city council's annual plan meetings which started yesterday.
The council suggests that instead of leaving waste at the kerbside, residents instead pay $45 per collection. Alternatively, an annual pre-paid coupon will enable each household to dispose of a boot load at the refuse transfer station.
Waitakere Solid Waste Manager Jon Roscoe said stopping the $639,000 a year collection was not necessarily a cost-saving exercise.
This was because the voucher option had a potential retail value of $1.3 million if 65,000 households received a $20 voucher.
Mr Roscoe said the $589,000 saving did not take into account a potential gain for the council's waste recovery station by eliminating the loss of recyclable items to scavengers.
The council expected fewer to take up the offer of trash disposal if it were user-pays.
The Auckland Regional Council and the Waitakere Ranges Protection Society support provision of an inorganic collection.
