Junk-call hoax litters Huntly

BY BRUCE HOLLOWAY

Dozens of Huntly households have been duped by a hoax flier promoting an inorganic rubbish collection in the town, leaving some of its streets covered in junk.

Yesterday the corner of Rayner Rd and Croft Tce, in Huntly East, looked like Steptoe's yard with broken TVs, a clothesline, a rusted wheelbarrow, carpet offcuts, clapped-out car seats, wooden doors, a vacuum cleaner and even a dog-eared scuba diving manual piled up on the grass verge.

And the Croft Tce kerbside littered with a disused toilet, broken microwave, and toy slide was spouting more rubbish than a parliamentary backbencher.

Problem is, Waikato District Council does its annual inorganic rubbish collection in November, and has no intention of removing this load of old rubbish.

Residents were prompted to create this magnificent display of kerbside junk by a "Midwinter Inorganic Rubbish Collection" flier fraudulently using Waikato District Council's colour logo and signed by a non-existent CH Burrows which was distributed to letterboxes in parts of Huntly over the weekend.

The council is urging Huntly residents to disregard the false flier and remove their rubbish from the kerbside as soon as possible, while it attempts to find out who was behind the flier.

"We are running a mid-winter inorganic rubbish collection covering the whole of the Huntly area," the forged flier said, advising that rubbish could be placed on the kerbside from Saturday, August 15, with the collection starting on August 25.

"A good chance to clean up around the house," the flier enthused. "All inorganic forms of rubbish will be collected, old fridges, stoves, car parts, corrugated iron, timber, carpet etc."

Council chief executive Gavin Ion was concerned that residents had been misled, but said his staff would not be removing the junk.

"The council does not endorse this inorganic collection."

There is no CH Burrows on the council's staff or ratepayer register.

Just as annoyed was Croft Tce resident Olivia Jones.

"Our family spent all day clearing out our junk," she said. "What a stupid prank."

Mr Ion said the stunt had come out of the blue.

"Whoever it is, they must be aiming to get something out of it. They may be looking to take what they want and leave the rest.

"The problem is someone will have to clean up afterwards."

- © Fairfax NZ News