CAPELLA locals have shown incredible community spirit with the submission of petition calling for altered and increased hours to the Capella Resource Recovery Centre.
Petition leader Maddelyn Tasker said she had collected in excess of 400 signatures on the petition, equating to two thirds of the entire Capella population.
“We took signatures for three weeks,” Mrs Tasker said.
“We started at the end of February and handed it in to council in the middle of March.
“In this short time, we got over 400 signatures from the Capella community.”
Mrs Tasker said personally, she had not found the facility’s current hours practical, a sentiment shared within the community.
“A lot of people aren’t even using the dump here because they just can’t get there in the set hours,” she said.
“After heading to the [community consultation] at the start of February and hearing everyone voicing their opinions [councillor Gai Sypher] informed us that a survey was put out with only 40 odd responses.
“[We] decided that wasn’t enough to gauge the town’s view; we are small town of around 600 adults so surely we could get some more if we put ourselves out into the community.
“We needed to do something bigger than complain amongst ourselves.”
Mrs Tasker said the hours suggested in the petition came about through trying to ascertain hours that would be practical for all residents.
“We knew asking for our dump back to how it [was always open] was exactly what our community wants, but in saying that we also knew that the council wasn’t going to grant this.
“We thought opening all weekend and Thursday afternoons late gives everyone a good chance to get down to the dump and [was] a more practical ask.”
Mrs Tasker said she had spoken to Central Highlands Regional Council Chief Executive Officer Scott Mason prior to submitting the petition, but had not received a response from the council since before this Tuesday.
Council requested in a March general meeting a further report into options for addressing the petition.
Solutions to the issue will be forthcoming once the council receives the rep
