By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
UPDATE 1.15PM
Cardinia Shire Council has sent a response – see below.
EARLIER:
SHE’S picked up her fair share of local litter over more than 19 years and says she’s sick of paying tip costs for other people’s laziness.
Tynong resident Dennise Rado-Lynch takes to the streets each week to tidy, clean and dispose of fast food wrappers, coffee cups and used nappies and has even pooper scooped human faeces off her driveway.
“The abundance of assorted litter and building waste which has become a constant eyesore throughout the shire is a disgrace and no one seems to be in charge of cleaning it up,” Ms Rado-Lynch said.
Concerned that the Cardinia Shire Council is unaware of the filth, particularly along what she calls the fast food freeway (M1), Ms Rado-Lynch wants to see immediate action and responsibility taken for the mess.
“Cardinia Shire Council is obviously very proud of and place great importance on the built environment.
“But the sheen from their new million dollar council offices might be blinding them to the fact that the natural environment within the shire resembles the local tip,” she said.
Using the broken window theory as a suggestion to help combat the annoyance, Ms Rado-Lynch said she fears the highway litter will lead to a “spiralling degeneration” of the whole area.
“I take pride in my environment and community but am becoming increasingly despondent as I am losing the battle to keep even my immediate environment free from freeway litter,” she said.
The call to action from the long-term resident was spurred on by mowing practices along the Monash Freeway.
“It annoys me every year that the abundance of litter is not removed first, it is just mowed over,” Ms Rado-Lynch said.
VicRoads, which is responsible for the maintenance of the Monash Freeway, reported late last month that enough rubbish to fill a shipping container had been removed from Melbourne’s freeways in the past year.
VicRoads’ data shows that in the year to 30 June 2015, 1157 pieces of rubbish were collected by its Incident Response Service.
The items included tractor tyres, ladders, tools, mattresses, cars and even a 35kg excavator bucket.
But VicRoads Metro South East Director of Operations Michael Barker said roadside litter opposed to illegally dumped material is an ongoing challenge adding “especially when some members of the community continue to irresponsibly discard litter”.
Mr Barker said the VicRoads network is committed to keeping roads clean and tidy and said general litter along roadsides is collected prior to grass mowing and garden bed maintenance.
“Hard to see litter can be unfortunately occasionally missed in long grass or garden beds,” he said.
In response to VicRoads Ms Rado-Lynch said the responsibility still remains with the Cardinia Shire Council.
“If VicRoads isn’t doing its job then surely it should be up to council to do something about it.
“You would have to be blind not to notice the litter that is everywhere,” she said.
Cardinia Shire council has since released this statement on the issue:
The council’s operations manager Charles Taveira said the council took its responsibilities in relation to litter very seriously.
“We invest a significant amount of money every year on managing litter and illegal dumping on land within the council’s control.”
“Council’s contractors pick up litter on council’s open spaces before each mowing cycle, however litter dumped in these areas is an ongoing issue faced by council,” Mr Taveira said.
“In addition to this, the council pro-actively removes litter and dumped rubbish in known ‘hotspots’ and responds to litter and dumped rubbish when identified through our audit program or public complaints.”
Council also has a significant network of over 660 litter bins throughout the municipality and many have recently been upgraded to larger bins. The contractor responsible for collecting these bins also cleans up nearby spilled waste each time they are emptied.
Any resident concerned with litter or dumped rubbish on land within the council’s control should contact the council on 1300 787 624.
