It might not be free tickets to Vegas. Or even the movies.
But in their first monthly meeting of the year, City of Greater Shepparton councillors were asked to consider a proposal that could mean residents are offered a free annual ticket to the tip.
The proposal was presented to councillors at the meeting on Tuesday, February 27 by Cr Fern Summer, who said such an initiative could be a conciliatory move after the “upheaval” of recent bin collection services.
Cr Summer put a motion to her fellow councillors that a report be prepared on the “costs and benefits of providing one complimentary tip ticket each year to every Greater Shepparton residential household/property”.
The proposed report would also outline:
- The best way to distribute the tickets;
- Provide details on how a trial could be implemented and funded within the 2024-25 budget;
- Detail comparison data of similar-sized councils that offer the service;
- Consider sorting options at transfer stations to prevent commingled municipal waste going to landfill.
"At the very least, there’s no harm in asking for a second opinion on what tip tickets are likely to cost,“ Cr Summer told the meeting.
“Supporting this motion doesn’t mean they will end up in the budget, it just shows us whether or not that is feasible and if so it can offer ratepayers significant reprieve.”
The motion was carried unopposed, with councillors saying they welcomed receiving a report to see what it had to say, without committing to a free tickets scheme.
Cr Ben Ladson praised Cr Summer for bringing forward the motion.
“I know there’s a lot of people struggling with the bin transition roll-out from the weekly rubbish collection to fortnightly and I think this would go a small way to alleviating that,” he said.
“It’s just asking for information and a report so I’m looking forward to seeing where it progresses.”
Cr Anthony Brophy said he supported getting a second opinion in the report, but mentioned he had found going to the tip was a relatively cheap option with, many items able to be taken free of charge.
“A lot of the items that I was obviously taking were free of charge,” he said.
“Household batteries, for instance, cardboard that’s flat-packed, fluorescent tubes, household recyclables, glass, plastics, bottles, aluminium cans, paper. You can take paint there, up to a certain level, pallets that are untreated, car batteries.
“There’s an awful lot you can take free of charge.”
Crs Sam Spinks, Seema Abdullah, Dinny Adem and Geoff Dobson each supported the motion but sounded a word of caution on what it might cost to offer the free tickets.
“There’s got to be, somewhere along the line, a trade-off somewhere,” Cr Dobson said.
Cr Greg James welcomed the motion saying he’d been calling for something similar for some time.
Mayor Shane Sali said the report would be welcomed after the “massive change” the council had undertaken in recent times in relation to waste collection.
The meeting was the council's first of 2024 and the first attended by new chief executive Fiona Le Gassick.