The Dunedin City Council has conceded its process for tackling illegal dumping was lacking after it was revealed no infringements were issued in the past year despite illegal dumping being reported every three days.
The issue came to the recent attention of the Otago Daily Times after a member of the public highlighted a large amount of rubbish being dumped in the Dunedin Town Belt off Wallace St.
Among the rubbish was a dangerous goods declaration, empty alcohol bottles, car parts, soiled nappies, other household rubbish and a container marked with a caution about its explosive contents.
The member of the public, who did not wish to be identified, said they had reported the illegal dumping to the council a month earlier.
In response to questions from the ODT, the council issued a series of answers on behalf on its parks and recreation, and water and waste departments.
The council was "looking into the reason this report was not responded to''.
The council received more than 130 calls about illegal dumping - a report every 2.8 days.
However, no fines were issued despite the prevalence of the issue, including the case of dumping in the Town Belt.
A fine up to $400 could be issued under the Litter Act.
"Evidence identifying the offender needs to be secured in order to issue a fine to offenders,'' the council said.
"The DCC investigates dumping to determine whether an offender can be identified.''
Speaking on the issue yesterday, council solid waste manager Catherine Irvine accepted the process had been lacklustre.
"It wasn't absent, but it wasn't great,'' she said.
The council was recruiting staff at present to manage the issue of illegal dumping as well as reviewing the process of reporting, investigating and cleaning up incidents.
"We are recruiting at the moment to get someone in that role and a field role to check on hot spots,'' she said.
"It is a priority because it's something I fully appreciate we could manage better.''
The issue was covered across several departments and there was little communication between them, which made issuing infringement notices more difficult and meant the council did not have a single cost for illegal dumping to the ratepayer.
"It's all been done a bit piecemeal so I want to bring that together between departments,'' she said.
As an example, the dumping in the Town Belt had not come across her desk because it occurred on reserve land, she said.
It was an issue she took a dim view of and the council would take a harder line on it once the review was completed and the process streamlined.
She urged members of the public to report illegal dumping to the council and take licence plate numbers or other identifying details if they witnessed such behaviour.
