Council to review bins, toilets, BBQs

Council is reviewing its cleaning regime of the shire’s public toilets during busy holiday times and plans to fast track public barbeque upgrades.

General Manager Dr Catherine Dale says the bumper holiday season has created extra pressure on some Council facilities and services, and she is working with staff to see how Council can respond more effectively when visitor numbers are exceptional.

‘We are looking at our budgets and contracts and plan to trial an increase in the cleaning frequency of the high use public toilets from twice to three times per day,’ she said.

‘Where budgets allow, we are fast tracking the replacement of our gas barbeques with electric barbeques to improve their reliability, and some of our most popular barbeques will get an extra clean on top of the regular weekly clean until the end of January.’

Dr Dale urged residents to contact Council if they notice facilities that need attention. ‘Unfortunately our best maintenance and cleaning efforts can be ruined very quickly by vandals or thoughtless people.

‘We always appreciate hearing from our residents when they notice something is amiss and I encourage everyone to continue contacting Council direct so that we can attend to any problems quickly.’

Dr Dale said she is also looking at how best to manage the litter problem in busy waterfront areas. ‘This is an issue that confronts most coastal towns for a few weeks over the peak holiday season,’ she said.

‘We placed more street litter bins in the busy areas for summer and increased to a daily collection but we know there were still problems. We don’t necessarily want garbage trucks creating congestion in already busy streets in the middle of the day to do a second pick up, so it could be a matter of more bins.

‘What we do ask is that residents and visitors dispose of their excess domestic waste at the waste management facilities and not the street litter bins. People with holiday homes might even like to consider obtaining a second set of bins. A full set is $228 per year or a second recycling or green waste bin is available for $60 per year,’ she said.

When it comes to illegal dumping, Dr Dale said Council staff had been kept busy investigating every report of illegal dumping and had issued some litter-related fines over the holiday period. ‘Again, we rely on the community’s help to report illegal dumping and we welcome calls from the public to let us know if people are leaving rubbish where they shouldn’t.