Councillors vote against recycling discount

The vote of five to three against the move followed a proposal put to last month's Cowra Council meeting from councillor Sharon D'Elboux "that a 50% discount be given to ratepayers".

Cr D'Elboux also moved a motion calling on the council to "provide a full and open written apology to the residents of Cowra LGA".

Both motions stemmed from the council placing recycling collected from Cowra residents directly into landfill from January 2018 to May 2019.

Councillors Cheryl Downing and Peter Wright supported Cr D'Elboux's motions.

Mayor Ruth Fagan and councillors Nikki Kiss, Paul Smith, Judi Smith and Bill West voted against the discount proposal.

"The decision (to place the recycling into landfill) meant that 990 ton of inbound kerbside recycling material was diverted straight to landfill," Cr D'Elboux said.

"This is the equivalent weight of 123 African elephants, 24 humpback whales or 30 Sherman tanks and 430 ton of potential recyclable material was not recovered according to staff calculations.

"Apart from the poor environmental aspect of the operational decision, it is hard to go past the lack of transparency and accountability council has to the Cowra Shire residents.

"Future confidence in Councils decision making processes is now in the spotlight, with a massive breach of community trust resulting from this matter," she said.

The estimated cost of the discount, if it had been approved, would have been $350,000, funded from the council's Waste Fund Reserve.

The council, instead voted to apologise, acknowledge the community should have been notified the recycling was not being sorted but that the money collected was used for waste management and will continue to be used for improved recycling practices.

"This is a more responsible financial decision," Cr Paul Smith, who moved this motion, said.

"Some of the people who paid and didn't get collected don't live here anymore. Some of the people who live here now would get a refund but don't deserve a refund.

"No one is saying this is right or correct. I think we acknowledge it, we apologise and virtually promise not to do it again," Cr Smith said.

Earlier, during debate over Cr D'Elboux's motions Cr Downing said not paying a rebate "sends the community a really bad message".

"Although councillors were not the ones making operational decisions the buck stops with us," Cr Downing said.

"This whole matter and the time it has taken for it to come to light is a very bad look," she said.

Cr Bill West, speaking against a rebate, admitted "we should have told the community and we've said that on many occasions".

"These sorts of errors, mistakes, oversights, call it what you will are going to happen from time to time. Not that it is justified, not that I am making excuses.

"(But) that doesn't add up to being a lack of accountability or transparency. This happened in 2018-19 and has been rectified.

"We should also acknowledge the recycling collection took place. The product was taken to the MRF. The cost of putting product into landfill is greater than the cost of recycling," Cr West said.

Cr Paul Smith added "the cost to the ratepayer is for the pick up".

"Council doesn't have any money, we manage ratepayers money, the people (who) are going to pay this are the ratepayers. A lot of them didn't live here at the time but they are going to have to pay for it," he said.

Mayor Ruth Fagan reminded councillors "the revenue we took in was used for waste management".

Cr Fagan said Council was very disappointed to learn late last year that the recycling had not been done as planned in 2018-2019.

Council, she said, has put in place measures to stop this happening again.

"The Council wishes to apologise unreservedly for the non-processing of kerbside recycling during that time," Cr Fagan said.

"This was a breach of community trust and we are and will continue to work hard toward improving our recycling services in the future."