Council’s best intentions in its marketing campaign about changes to its rubbish collection dates went all pear shaped – and it’s not Council’s fault.

And it’s not even the fault of our wonderful rubbish collection contractors, Pacific Waste.

Council staff and Pacific Waste sat down and devised a basic, yet effective campaign to advise residents affected by changes to their rubbish deliveries, said changes to be implemented as of Monday November 2nd.

All was ready: an ad campaign in the local paper, social media and on our website, leaflet and calendar delivered to all householders and a big story in the Pen 2 Paper.

The only problem was that the letterboxing distribution company Council uses didn’t deliver the leaflets and calendars to all householders.

Worse still, I understand two of the areas that missed out include areas where the bin collection days had changed, causing a lot of confusion for residents and extra costs for Council and our waste management contractors, which will ultimately be borne by ratepayers.

I could name and shame the firm concerned, but as I am a competitor, that could be seen to be a bit of a conflict of interest (not in a legal way), but it is in the public interest that you know this as Council’s reputation has taken a bit of a beating.

It takes a beating deservedly from time to time, so I think it is fair to make it clear when it isn’t Council’s fault.

Council staff will be sending a letter to all residents in the areas we believe were not informed. I congratulate the staff on their initiative on undertaking this difficult and expensive exercise to reassure residents.

The two areas of which I am aware affected are Northfield north of Grand Junction Road and Klemzig west of OG Road.

It just goes to show that private enterprise can make as much of a stuff up as governments can, but it’s just that we don’t have The Advertiser on side to protect us.

UPDATE 5/11/15

Evidently some residents of Northgate south of Folland Avenue and Lightsview also did not receive flyers last week as planned and Council staff have sent letters to them to resolve the situation.