Waikato District Council won’t be extending refuse and recycling services to Pukekawa households at this stage.
Service Delivery General Manager, Tim Harty, explains that over recent years Pukekawa residents have asked Council to provide the same rubbish and recycling service that other communities in the Waikato district receive.
In September this year, Council asked Pukekawa ratepayers and residents if they wanted a weekly kerbside
pre-paid refuse collection, a weekly two crate recycling collection, and a phone-in inorganic collection collected from their property once a year.
Mr Harty says in order for the new service to go ahead 65% of respondents needed to say yes.
“Following community engagement and information sharing, we received 286 responses. 167 voted Yes (58%) and 119 voted No. That’s only 58% support which means the service we offered won’t be going ahead. The proposed service would come at a cost of $1.50 for a pre-paid sticker and $127.83 targeted rates charge per dwelling. This may have been a factor in people’s decision not to support the new option.
“Council has a commitment to support our communities in their bid to be free of waste. While this idea didn’t get the green light we’re still discussing other ways to promote waste minimisation in the Pukekawa area.”
However Mr Harty says residents do need to be aware of changes to their current refuse and recycling service.
“As part of our long term plan consultation we asked the community to choose their preferred refuse and recycling level of service. They chose Option 1 which means that until 30 June 2016, households will continue to get a monthly recycling collection and will be asked to continue manage their waste in the same responsible way they do now.
“Residents should be aware we are currently assessing the viability of this service including future funding options.”
