By Jessica Anstice
A “giant” pile of rubbish left on a nature strip in Pakenham has a resident fuming.
Dumped near the intersection of Macleod Court and Tyalla Way, the unsightly mountain of trash has left Pakenham resident David Connor feeling frustrated.
Plastic bags, buckets, cushions, drink bottles, cat scratching posts, footballs, trophies, electrical wires, books and pots are among the items left scattered across the grassed area.
“I rang Cardinia Council on Monday after seeing it from the Princes Highway as I drove past and it was still there last night,” Mr Connor said.
“It’s absolutely disgusting and I’m noticing more and more rubbish being dumped on nature strips since council’s hard waste collection scheme was changed from annual or bi annual to a ring and book system.
“May be several reasons as to why it’s there, ranging from bins being too small for larger sized families or that we have moved away from regular hard rubbish collections to a booking service which people are either unwilling, unable or unaware of.”
Taking into consideration the rubbish pile is not placed directly in front of a house, Mr Connor said he is certain it is not hard rubbish.
However a Cardinia Shire spokesperson said it was a pile of hard rubbish booked by two homes at the location.
“Our hard waste contractor has removed the booked materials,” the spokesperson said.
“The residents have been asked to remove the remaining unacceptable and excess items.”
Nevertheless, Mr Connor believes it is a potential “health risk” to members of the community.
“Surely this has to be a health risk not to mention potentially attracting vermin,” he said.
“There is also the potential to add fire hazard to that list if someone gets bored in lockdown.”
In order to solve the issue of dumped rubbish in the shire, Mr Connor would like to see the council conduct a review of its procedures.
“When I rang council several weeks ago to enquire about several sites of hard rubbish in my local area, I was told they could not help me due to privacy reasons and literally was unable to resolve the issue until a much higher authority stepped in,” he explained.
“Whereas other councils, like Casey and Kingston, both have systems which are much easier to deal with general enquiries relating to hard rubbish.”
