A new community group in Palmerston has rubbished the way the Waitaki District Council has handled its solid waste strategy, calling the procedures "shoddy''.
Waihemo Waste Busters wants to be included in any future waste disposal and recycling system, and has said so to the council's chief executive, Michael Ross.
The group's chairman, Pat Shannon, said yesterday the council may well make a wrong decision regarding the solid waste management strategy for the district, causing poor outcomes and major cost increases to ratepayers.
There was a fear that fuel and downstream cost escalation would soon make the single monopoly corporate solution at present on the table very expensive for ratepayers.
The decision the council would make on Tuesday was probably the most important in its term.
"So why is it not willing to wait a month and hear our request and concerns before locking in a contract for 15 years?'' he asked.
If the council decided to proceed, it would be unable to consider the Waihemo group's proposal to establish a local resource recovery centre in Palmerston.
"We were inspired by established waste-busters elsewhere and the other local initiatives including the Waitaki Resource Recovery Park in Oamaru and neighbouring Hampden's proposal to manage their own waste,'' Mr Shannon said.
Such community-based recycling and recovery showed at least 75%-85% of waste could be diverted from landfills and can more effectively promote less waste from households.
The council decided mid-process to change the strategy document once the contract was settled.
If there was no current strategy document how were councillors supposed to make a decision that was both sensible and represented community wishes?, he asked.
The group felt inviting a monopoly for the whole district was nothing but a recipe for cost explosion to the benefit of a big corporate at the expense of the ratepayer.
"We want to do it better but we fear the council will lock out the option.''
