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The removal of 166 rubbish bins from the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board area by Auckland Council continues to cause complaints from ratepayers to Councillors and local board members.
The plan to remove bins which were in close proximity to each other, underutilised or in poor repair, in order to save an estimated $1.36m annually, was first raised with local boards by council staff last year (HM June 26, 2023).
Four boards, including Rodney, decided to fund retaining the 30 percent of bins that would otherwise be removed. They paid between $58,000 and $71,000 to retain the bins until next month, when each local board will have to decide whether to continue the funding for the next financial year.
However, Hibiscus and Bays Local Board deputy chair Gary Brown says the board does not have the money to keep the bins in this area.
“Some of those bins were not needed, but there are others that we’d like to bring back,” he says. “However, because we fund contestable grants, which some other local boards don’t have, we can’t afford it.”
Council’s head of operations parks and community facilities, Julie Pickering, says the savings gained by council and ratepayers from removing rubbish bins represent the cost of employing contractors to empty the bins and dispose of the rubbish.
Pickering says the bins that were removed won’t be going to landfill.
“They’ll be recycled as scrap metal if they’re damaged or, if they’re in good condition, they’ll be kept for use as replacements for bins which may sustain damage in the future.”
