Residents to lose rubbish collection

Mauriceville residents are no longer to have a waste collection service, instead they have been told to take their rubbish to the Nursery Road transfer station in Masterton.

The tip in the small rural community was closed when waste volumes dropped to the point where Masterton District Council decided it was no longer sustainable and, at the behest of the Mauriceville community, a six-month trial rubbish collection was started.

Bags were to be left at front gates to be picked up by the rural post contractor.

That was in early December last year but this week the council decided not to continue the collection.

For the collection to be viable an average of 125 bags needed to be collected each week.

Over the past 12 weeks bags collected had ranged from six to 16, with the average being nine bags a week.

"That is less than 10 per cent of the level identified as being viable," assets and operations manager David Hopman said.

During the six-month trial, $6500 was spent on collecting the Mauriceville rubbish bags. That equated to $25 a bag, Mr Hopman said.

He said that before stopping the collection Mauriceville people had been told to "use or lose" the service.

The collection will stop on June 26.

Mr Hopman said asking Mauriceville people to use Nursery Road for waste disposal and recycling was "consistent with the level of service received by most other rural ratepayers".