Dear LG Focus,
Having recently read the article ‘Catching rubbish dumpers’ in the October edition of Local Government Focus, I have put together some information on how the City of Gosnells in Western Australia deals with such issues.
Like other local governments across Australia, the City of Gosnells is proactively dealing with the issue of illegal dumping. In order to address the issue, the City of Gosnells CEO, Ian Cowie, established a special staff taskforce to devise a comprehensive strategy on how to address illegal dumping and improve the look of the City.
The City’s taskforce group consisted of innovative staff who had recently participated in the 2012 Local Government Managers Australia Management (LGMA) Challenge.
Developing a strategy provided an opportunity for the group to implement skills learnt during the Management Challenge. As the taskforce began analysing the issue, it became apparent that illegal dumping was an underlying concern contributing to the City’s poor visual amenity.
The taskforce developed a comprehensive Beautification Strategy that has now been approved by Council. The strategy includes three goal areas: to encourage the community to have a sense of pride in the visual amenity of their area; to minimise illegal dumping activity that causes visual and environmental pollution; and to improve streetscapes within the City.
There are a number of initiatives that the City will implement in order to achieve the overarching goals with examples including: introducing the City’s first ‘Great Front Yard’ competition; encouraging residents to report litterers; introducing CCTV to deter illegal dumping and prosecuting offenders when caught; constructing entry barriers at illegal dumping hotspots and; completing a certain number of streetscape improvement projects each year.
The Beautification Strategy will be in place for five years and reviewed annually, and new initiatives may be added. There are a number of benefits to both the community and potential investors by having a visually aesthetic local government area. The City envisages that the implementation of the strategy will help achieve this goal.
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Dave Griffiths
Mayor, City of Gosnells
