Hushed-up waste management plan will be challenged today
27 March 2018

The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance has been overwhelmed with submissions against proposals in Auckland Council’s Waste Management and Minimisation Plan (WMMP) to run private waste pickup operators out of the market in favour of an inefficient, Auckland-wide, Council-run scheme.

The Ratepayers’ Alliance will be presenting these submissions, as well as its own long-form submission, to the Mayor and Councillors today.

When: 11am, Tuesday 27 March 2018 (15-minute time slot)
Where: Reception Lounge, Level 2, Auckland Town Hall, 305 Queen Street.

Ratepayers’ Alliance spokesperson Jo Holmes says, “When we launched our tool on Friday to help ratepayers submit on the Long-term Plan, we knew we would hear lots about rate hikes and fuel tax. What we weren’t expecting was a massive 2504 submissions against the Council’s WMMP.”

“Ratepayers have balked at Auckland Council’s plan to run roughshod over existing private waste collection services, and implement their own ‘super-city’ style unified waste management scheme.”

“The whole process has been a consultative failure, with next no public discussion or media coverage. Part of this is due to how it has been packaged alongside the Long-term Plan, which has sucked up everyone’s attention until we addressed the WMMP in our submission campaign.”

“The WMMP largely ignores previous recommendations from the Council to balance environmentalist ideology with economic analysis. And consultation documents don’t even present the option of keeping waste services the way they are.”

“Instead, ratepayers are being force-fed a one-size-fits-all, ‘Council knows best’ waste management scheme. The practical result for ratepayers will be fewer services (such as fortnightly waste pickups instead of weekly), at a greater cost, thanks to the fee for the unified council services, from which ratepayers will not be able to opt out.”

“Today we will submit to the Mayor and Councillors on the WMMP, as well as rate hikes, wasteful spending, and the proposed fuel tax. Ratepayers’ voices will be heard!”

ENDS

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