Queanbeyan-Palerang Council refuses to open Bungendore tip despite storm damage

The small village bore the brunt of the wild storm which ripped through the area on Tuesday afternoon, residents said. 

But clean-up efforts were hampered after Queanbeyan-Palerang Council refused to open the tip until Friday.

Turallo Terrace resident Alix Burnett said it was the worst storm she'd seen in the town. 

"Fences were down, some roofs removed, partial roofs removed up and down the street and on some side streets and a lot of trees had come down on buildings," she said.

"The SES were working until about 3am on Wednesday, there was a lot of green waste." 

But because the tip is only open from midday on Friday to midday on Monday, affected residents were unable to dispose of the carnage. 

"I rang up Queanbeyan-Palerang Council because I believed they have opened the tip in the past if someone requires particular access and they have charged a fee. In this instance it was a lot of damage done around Bungendore and the tip was only half a kilometre up the road and I thought they might open the tip to let people at least start cleaning up," Ms Burnett said. 

Ms Burnett said she was told because a state emergency had not been declared the council could not assist because they were "short staffed". 

"People just had to leave things where they were and get guys back in, at a time the tip was open, to remove the green waste," she said.

Tree lopper Graham Foy was called in to help with the clean-up around Bungendore and described the damage as resembling a "war zone".

He said he was forced to drive 50 minutes back to Mugga Lane from the village each time he had to drop a load off.

"A one-day job turned into a two-day job because of it. It's incredibly frustrating because you quote a job for a client, expecting to have the tip available to use and then all of a sudden you have to turn around and say to the client I can't honour that quote, it's going to be a little bit more because I have to take everything back into Canberra to drop off," Mr Foy said.

However a Queanbeyan-Palerang Council spokesman pointed out the Bungendore tip wasn't actually a tip. 

"The facility in Bungendore is a waste transfer station which operates differently to the typical tip and requires access to be supervised by more than one operator," he said. 

"The opening hours are determined by the business model adopted by the Council and agreed with the community. Any expansion to the permanent operating hours would require changes to the waste charges and the employment of additional staff."

The spokesman said the "waste transfer station" accepted green waste free of charge so Bungendore residents wouldn't be "further" out of pocket.

But Ms Burnett said residents were already paying approximately $3500 a year in rates, $430 of which goes towards waste management.

Mr Foy said: "I said to the locals I don't know why you're paying them rates if they're not going to open the tip up to you, especially in these conditions."