Rubbish bag charge unfair in era of Super City, say Westies

From 2015 user-pays for all household rubbish collections. Photo / APN

Auckland Council has come under more pressure over its plan not to introduce wheelie bins for household rubbish collections in West Auckland until at least 2015.

Residents of the former Waitakere City have joined Kishor Kumar, of New Lynn, in demanding to know why they still have to pay $2.15 each for a prepaid official plastic bag when friends in the former Auckland and Manukau City Council areas do not.

Auckland Council said it was working on a standardised system for all seven former council areas but was obliged to continue with the prepaid "user-pays" bag system inherited from the former councils for Waitakere, North Shore, Papakura and Franklin.

But a West Auckland reader, who asked to be called Kavita, said she agreed with Mr Kumar.

"Why the difference when we are in a Super City now?" she said.

"It seems the changes are merged wherever it's in favour of Auckland Council and not the ratepayers, and if the ratepayer is to benefit, they stick to the old way of doing things.

"If it's uniformity, then it should be across the board. Where's the democracy?"

Another reader, Melissa Dryden, said it was "ludicrous" and "discriminatory" for the prepaid bag rules to apply for three more years when others in the Super City enjoyed a rates-subsidised system.

"If the West Auckland community banded together and everyone put their rubbish out in black plastic bags [instead of the official grey bags], what would the council do? Collect it, of course."

West Auckland residents contacted by the Herald had mixed views about the likelihood of bags being replaced by bins in three years, with all saying they made do with one bag a fortnight.

The council is to vote this week on whether to give bins to all the urban mainland, with a user-pays system of charging about $2.50 for an 80-litre-capacity bin to be emptied.

Heather Steadman, of Te Atatu Peninsula, said she could see the benefits of both bags and bins.

"Bags are not a big cost, because we put our food scraps in a compost bin.

"But if you put a bag out the night before collection it would be vulnerable to dogs rummaging and cats and birds, too."

Rana Malik, of Ranui, said she agreed with a user-pays bin to get rid of refuse. "Sometimes bags are ripped open and make a mess on the street."

However, Susanne Vincent said bins would be "hopeless" in her coastal settlement of Laingholm.

Jane Carter said that although Waitakere's rubbish receptacles were unchanged under the Super City, collection days were changed on public holidays. "Waitakere City's system used to work well."

The council's manager for infrastructure and environmental services, John Dragicevich, said the schedule for collections on or after public holidays was modified last year "to achieve standardisation in service provision region-wide".

He said the council had a collection contract with Onyx to cover the period 2005 to 2015.

The council received the bulk of the $2.15 a bag to cover the cost of collecting and disposing of refuse, and the supplier received a small portion.

FROM 2015

* User-pays for all household rubbish collections.
* Wheelie bins replace prepaid bags in urban areas. Mix of bags and bins in rural areas, Waiheke and Great Barrier Islands.
* Choice of bin sizes from 60 litres to 240 litres.
* Household recycle collection fortnightly, optional bin size, paid from rates.
* Household organic (green waste) collection, paid from rates.
* Inorganic collection for all who book, paid from rates.