Tip vouchers not dumped

By Kate Taylor

A motion to introduce free tip vouchers for ratepayers has been recycled at the May 1 council meeting.
Councillors had voted at the previous council meeting, in April, not to provide tip vouchers along with rates notices however at that meeting, East Ward Councillor John Keogh wanted to at least introduce a voucher trial.
His motion was introduced too late to be considered so he brought it before the May council meeting in the form of a proposal that council provides one voucher with each rates notice allowing one cubic metre of rubbish to be taken to a transfer station for free, as a one-year trial.
The motion proposed investigating the inclusion of a $25 fee on rates notices to cover the voucher cost – to be done in time for the budget which is due to be finalised in July.
Cr Keogh also proposed excluding pensioners from having to pay the fee.
Cr Keogh proposed to, at the end of the trial, assess future vouchers based on whether or not illegally dumped rubbish had increased or decreased over the year.
“I believe that supplying tip passes will help stop illegal rubbish dumping.….. I do not believe this is a silver bullet strategy, but at the end of the trial we will be able to determine the positives. People can tidy up their property legally, I want and encourage ratepayers to recycle to a maximum,” he told the May meeting when putting forward his motion.
Cr Bingham noted that there was no report on the issue before the meeting, however he was gently reminded that a full report on it had been presented to the previous meeting.
“Should we consider to defer this?” Cr Bingham asked.
Cr Edwards asked whether there would be enough time to do all of the calculations before the budget is due, however the CEO said that, including consultation, there would not be time.
Cr Sullivan objected, saying that it was making policy on the run.
“Which we have been accused of before – ad hoc decisions come back to bite us, it’s not good governance and it’s not good process. First, we must consider the ramifications, or it will come back to bite us big time,” Cr Sullivan said.
East Ward Councillor Tonia Dudzik was opposed to deferring the item.
“We have the voucher figures, why would we defer this?” she asked.
The motion to defer the item was successful – despite councillors Tonia Dudzik, Dave Edwards and John Keogh voting against it, Councillors Jarrod Bingham and Tom Sullivan voted in favour, with Mayor Paul Tatchell casting the deciding vote.
The tip voucher issue is expected to come before a future council meeting.