BOTTLED UP: Discarded botttles and other litter have piled up beneath the Hill Street bridge over Moulder Creek after recent storms. P1090097
LESS than a month after Bev Alexander-Fisher and a group from the Orange Ratepayers’ Association gave up their Sunday morning to clean up the parklands along Moulder Creek the area is again littered with rubbish.
Recent downpours over the past month have resulted in debris and litter piling up in pipes along the creek and under the bridge at Hill Street.
Mrs Alexander-Fisher said the council’s fortnightly clean-up at the area when contractors mow the park was not enough.
“I called [councillor] Neil Jones and said you need to go and have a look,” she said.
“The grass might be mown but the creek is full of rubbish. It smells at night because the water is quite stagnant.
“People shouldn’t have to get out there and do what council isn’t doing.”
But Cr Jones said the community needed to take responsibility for litter to improve the waterways and the aesthetics of the city.
“You can go to any roadside or park ... and they are absolutely disgraceful,” he said.
“Part of that is simply an education program. One of the challenges is how the schools can get this message through to young people.”
Cr Jones said gross pollutant traps at Dalton Street, which stop rubbish ending up in the city’s stormwater, were also full of litter after the recent storms.
He said he has spoken to council staff after seeing three trolleys dumped in Moulder Creek and litter in the park.
“They do periodic clean-ups where they go right through the Moulder Park precinct,” he said.
“But it’s part of a widespread littering problem in the city.
“I don’t think [clean-ups] are something council should be doing on a daily basis ... but perhaps they should target key areas more frequently.”
Cr Jones said more bins would not necessarily stop the problem.
“You often see as much litter around the bins as in the bin,” he said.
clare.colley@fairfaxmedia.com.au