It is not fair people continue to pay for the service that they do not want, do not use or in some cases were not given, he said at Tuesday night’s council meeting.

He raised examples of unit blocks in Warrendine Street where there where up to 18 bins vying for a spot on the street on bin collection day.

To the other extreme there were units in Curran street where residents were only given one green bin, he said.

“The people who do not need the green bin still have to pay for it, I think we [council] are doing pretty well out of it,” he said.

“We’re getting a little over the top with our charges.”

Cr Kidd said other councils had different systems where residents who chose not to use the service did not pay for it, bins were smaller and collection times varied. 

Enterprise services director Stephen Sykes said it was not practical to have smaller bins because they would fall over and were not as rigid as the larger bins.

He said like most services to the city, all ratepayers pay for them whether they use them or not.

“It’s the same for the library the gallery, the pool, everybody pays for it,” Mr Sykes said. 

The number of bins each unit block receives  depends on how many the strata manager told council they wanted, Mr Sykes said.

In some cases the manager did not get back to council staff so the unit block was given one green bin per unit rather than fewer bins to share between residents Mr Sykes told the council meeting.

Cr Kidd rejected the claim.

“I know that they were not asked how many bins they wanted,” he said.

“I would like to see a report.”

Any resident who wants a green bin who does not have one is encouraged to contact council and any resident who has a bin and does not want it can have council take it away at no charge.

 nicole.kuter@fairfaxmedia.com.au