West Coast rubbish spill Photo: Facebook / South Westland Coastal CleanupWestland can't afford to continue paying for the cleanup of rubbish washed down the Fox River, and it needs Government help, its mayor says. Flooding last month washed rubbish from the long disused Fox Glacier landfill down the river and along the coast, prompting a major cleanup alongside flood damage repairs. "We've got a responsibility under the Local Government Act to act in a fiscally responsible manner," Mayor Bruce Smith said. "That was something we discussed at length and in particular how far do we go with 6500 ratepayers? Mr Smith said a conservative estimate of the cleanup bill would be around a million dollars.

Source: Otago Daily Times April 18, 2019 21:11 UTC