Shire of Carnarvon president Eddie Smith ‘utterly ashamed’ of illegal waste dumpers in community

The Shire of Carnarvon’s president says he is “utterly disappointed” and “ashamed” of members in the community who are dumping their household rubbish illegally. In a Facebook post on the Shire of Carnarvon page, Eddie Smith hit out at people dumping rubbish. “Carnarvon you should be ashamed! To the community of Carnarvon, the video is in our town’s backyard — would you do this to your own backyard,” he wrote. “As Shire president I feel like I’ve been kicked in the stomach by the lack of respect demonstrated by those members of our community that have seen fit to dump their rubbish without any thought to the environment, public health and the amenity of our town.” In the post, Cr Smith said while inspecting the site he witnessed a couple in the area dumping waste from their vehicle, their reasoning being “there’s no signs”. “Goodness gracious me,” he wrote. “Has our community reached the point that common sense and respect has gone out the window?” Cr Smith asked the community who have contributed to the eyesore to help raise funds to remove the rubbish. He said rates would be raised to clean up the illegally dumped rubbish. “I’m sure those respectful ratepayers amongst us would not be very happy when our rates go up to cover the tens of thousands of dollars required to clean up our back yard,” he wrote. Cr Smith told the Midwest Times there was a plan in place to remove the rubbish. “We will have to clean it up, we can’t leave it. Not only is it what you can see, but there’s also people’s household perishables,” he said. The Shire president said he believed it wasn’t a particular group of people, but rather across the entire community. He said majority of rubbish removal centres were free of charge. “Majority of the rubbish out there is for free, except for mattresses,” he said. “The fact it’s old household waste is disappointing because 95 per cent of it is free.”