The Council publicly consulted on this in the last few months of Chadwick’s era – June \/ July 2022 . <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I didn’t notice this at the time because Council was simultaneously trying to destroy democracy in Rotorua with the RDC (Representation Arrangements) Bill and dispose of 10 reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having reviewed the consultation, I think it was badly flawed. The public were offered 5 options:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(1) Business as usual<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(2) Garden Organics (GO) collected weekly<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(3) Food Organics (FO) collected weekly<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(4) Food Organics (collected weekly) and Green Organics (collected fortnightly)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(5) Food Organics and Green Organics mixed collected weekly (FOGO)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The people who supported either Option 4 or 5 were asked if they were comfortable with a change of rubbish collection frequency from weekly to fortnightly. 71% of those people said yes. So nobody else has been asked if they are happy with this change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On 10 May 2023 the newly elected Council (Infrastructure and Environment Committee) considered this and decided to proceed with option 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was the only Councillor who voted against this. I argued that this was a new Council with 7 new Councillors out of 10 and times had changed (think COVID) since the consultation had taken place – therefore the consultation was ‘stale’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have taken every opportunity since to express my opposition to FOGO as I think it is a very bad idea. Surely the one thing we can all agree is core council business is rubbish collection, and this Council is even messing that up…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Implementation of FOGO was delayed by a year, which took us past the election period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more information here’s a link to the relevant Council agenda item:<\/p>\n\n\n\n