St David’s Uniting Church congregation members have gathered more than 500 signatures urging that the service dumped in 2010 in exchange for four free tip vouchers be reinstated.

Cr Darren Cameron, who will table the petition, has lodged a notice of motion on an issue that was part of his campaign for the 2012 election.

A St David’s charity bin service is regularly crammed with bulky material that previously was collected on hard-waste collection days.

Cr Cameron also said many of the church’s elderly parishioners did not own utes or trailers to go to the tip. And he said the council’s plan to step up recycling at the tip could benefit from a hardwaste collection.

“Clearly a hard-waste collection would help us harvest recyclable items, in particular furniture and other bulky items,” he said.

“They can then be refurbished and recycled.

“All sane people realise that showing more care for the environment and making the most of existing resources is something we need to do locally for the sustainability of our city.”

Cr Cameron said he believed the arrangement the council now had of collecting hard-waste when asked to do so had short-comings.

“Several people I have spoken have experienced considerable difficulty in getting the council to do this,” he said.

“One elderly lady asked no less than four times to get an item removed. We can do much better, particularly for the infirm and elderly.

“I don’t believe overall the tip voucher system has been a success.

“They are only sent to those who pay rates and there a very high proportion of people are public or private tenants.

“The council has no way of forcing owners of properties to pass on the vouchers and not hoard them or give them to friends or family.”

In its last year of 2009, the service cost $260,659 — $402 a tonne for disposal.

The petition signatures were collected from April to June.

“Petitions are an excellent way for ratepayers to directly communicate concerns,” Cr Cameron said.