Rubbish piles up at gates
By SUZANNE KEEN Blue Christchurch City Council rubbish bags, empty beer crates, flax bushes and old clothing were among the rubbish dumped outside the locked gates of the city’s three metropolitan refuse transfer stations yesterday. The stations have been closed because of an industrial dispute, and workers are picketing outside the gates to make sure nobody gets inside to dump rubbish. The Canterbury secretary of the Labourers’ Union, Mr Dick Lowe, said that some people who had arrived with trailers
full of rubbish had decided to put the rubbish on the roadside in front of the stations. About 20 tonnes was dumped outside the Ruru Road station — more than at the other two sites, probably because it was “off the beaten track.” “We have had no aggro from the public, they have just taken the matter into their own hands. The public have been very supportive.” The stations have been closed since Saturday when workers were suspended after refusing to collect dumping fees. For two weeks they had banned overtime.
The Christchurch Metropolitan Refuse Committee met at noon yesterday, and has told the union it is willing to resume award negotiations provided all staff return to full normal work with no preconditions. The union will meet again this morning. The refuse committee’s chairman, Cr Ron Wright, said it was “regrettable” that the union would not make its decision until then. He said that dumping outside the stations had ceased by late yesterday afternoon, and the committee hoped to have the
rubbish cleared today. Christchurch, Waimairi and Paparua rubbish collections will not resume until the stations re-open. The Christchurch City streetworks engineer, Mr Bruce Scott, said some residents seemed unaware there was no collection yesterday, and he hoped they would take back bags. The Waimairi District Council had hoped for a collection yesterday by a refuse collector, but after picking up one load of rubbish the driver was unable to find anywhere to dump it.
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Press, 23 February 1988, Page 1
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329Rubbish piles up at gates Press, 23 February 1988, Page 1
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