In response to the latest Letter to the Editor from Ross Peddlesden in the News-Mail and noting his admission that he got some of his facts wrong, I’ve now invited him to share his financials on the green waste issue.
The options that he suggests are discussed each year as part of Council’s budget deliberations however I’m not convinced that they don’t have some merit. We need to keep an open mind on these issues and once we get his calculations they can be reviewed to see if they do indeed provide a viable solution which the community would be prepared to adopt.
This is the letter published this morning …..
Ross Peddlesden has suggested alternative methods of dealing with green waste and he’s quite right, some Council’s choose not to charge for green waste at their tip or they choose to use a voucher system which, as he states, comes at an additional small cost.
There is a very easy way for him to gain support for his proposals and I for one am open to any suggestion that is supported by fact.
Council’s budget clearly identifies the current costs associated with green waste management including line by line items of expenditure and revenue. These include whole of life costs through items such as depreciations, landfill repatriations, environmental compliance, etc. and I assume that Ross has reviewed these as part of his research into the subject and his subsequent criticism.
Far from being negative on the issues that he raises, I would simply ask him to publish a spreadsheet identifying the predicted costs and returns that support the proposals together with the method that he would recommend to make up any shortfalls. This would remove any ambiguity as to how much these “small costs” would be and who would have to pay for them. It’s really that simple.
The community quite rightly expects its current and aspiring representatives to be transparent and accountable and this is a very basic and reasonable way for Ross to achieve this whilst giving everyone a better understanding of what he is proposing.