DEAR News Of The Area,

THE tip is a disgrace.

The Council of course would rather I called it a Waste Management Centre… but I don’t see enough management to comply with that name.

Let me say at the outset that the staff there are lovely, polite, and helpful.

They are also working in a muddy quagmire the likes of which have not been seen since trench warfare in World War I.

The CRC (Community Recycling Centre) is a good idea, but there are silly rules like “only 20 litres per day of paint or motor oil per person”.

Too bad if you have more than that because the answer is you have to come back on multiple days, depositing 20 litres per time.

Really?

Really!

That’s what I had to do recently.

It beggars belief!

And on the topic of the CRC, if I ran it the immediately recyclable goods (such as paint and varnish), would be free to be removed if one had a need for some.

But that is against the rules.

No scavenging allowed.

More broadly on recycling, when are we going to get a tip shop?

Raleigh waste management centre (Bellingen Shire) has one, why can’t we?

And perhaps a hardstand waste transfer area so that recyclables of all sorts could be dealt with properly (not via the current system of trooping about in the mud).

And while there IS still mud, a vehicle washdown station would be good.

But wait, there is one, but it has an unfriendly notice near the exit booth that tells you you need to pay to use it.

Again, really?!

I use it anyway.

I used to live in a regional Victorian town where the tip had all of these things.

Finally to fees.

You can only discover the fees payable (and they are many and varied) on page 52 of the CHCC Integrated Planning and Reporting PDF, buried deep on the City of Coffs Harbour website for those who like a challenge.

Don’t bother looking for fees on the webpage for managers of the tip, Coffs Coast Waste Services, there is no fee schedule there.

So I will call our tip “the tip” until I no longer need gum boots to go there on a wet day, when I no longer need to wash my vehicle after being at the tip, when there is true recycling, and when the myriad of other shortcomings have been fixed.

Only then will it be a Waste Management Centre.

Meantime a big thankyou to patient and long-suffering staff at the tip, and please know that you have my full sympathy for the appalling system and conditions you work under.

Regards,
Roger TINDALE,
Boambee East.