By ANEEKA SIMONIS
PATIENCE didn’t pay off for a number of Pakenham residents who were waiting for Cardinia Shire Council to collect their hard rubbish nearly two weeks after their scheduled pick-up date.
Those who spoke out, however, had their rubbish picked up in a matter of hours though streets remained littered.
Pakenham resident Jude Faliszewski’s hard waste collection date was on Monday 27 October but when her rubbish was still left on her property nine days later, she complained to council.
First thing the next day on Thursday 6 November, a disposal truck collected the rubbish from her Viola Avenue home but instead of removing similar waste from her neighbour’s properties, the near-empty truck drove away.
Her neighbour Mark Hartley was home when the waste truck was cleaning Jude’s property and was visibly frustrated when it “sped off” without clearing his.
“I don’t have a hell of a lot here. I just don’t understand why they can’t just stop and put the rest in … it’s not a full truck,” he said.
This isn’t the first time the council has given preferential treatment to residents who’ve dug their heels in.
Sandalwood Drive resident Daniele Ashley said her property was cleaned four hours after complaining to the council but the same courtesy wasn’t extended to surrounding streets.
“I called the council a week after the date. Within four hours, someone cleaned the whole street but left all the other streets. The place was a total disgrace … there was rubbish flying everywhere and people going through stuff,” Daniele said.
Iris Place resident Janey Lemarrek said she was less than impressed with the delays.
“I had my stuff out the weekend before the collection date and since then, it has rained, things have broken up and have been falling out everywhere,” she said.
“If council don’t intend on picking it up until two weeks later, than they shouldn’t set the early date. I don’t expect it to be cleaned up straight away but at least within three days.”
The council’s waste officer Melanie Kerr said waste collection got off to a difficult start in Pakenham.
“Storms on the first day of collection coupled with driver illness delayed collection by a few days. Many households have also embraced the service by presenting the full two cubic metres for collection – this is taking time and resources to collect. Collections are continuing and crews will be working over the weekend to clear the backlog,” she said.
But other residents were unfazed by the delays including Mary Maru on Viola Avenue who said rubbish collection “has been very slow this year,” but didn’t mind the wait.
