Months ago, council adopted to reduce the opening days and hours of the communities’ waste transfer stations and remove recycling drop-off bins from some of the villages.

This came into effect on Saturday.

Cr Mitchell Pakes said by dumping the services, council has ignored community feedback and possibly inflamed illegal dumping problems.

Cr Pakes and four other councillors were outvoted on the issue.

“My biggest concern is that the reduced hours will lead to an increase to illegal dumping, undoing all the hard work the team has been doing over the past few years,” Cr Pakes said.

“We have enough trouble patrolling it now, let alone giving them more reason to do so.

“On one hand, the Green/Gash council has adopted a 13.2 per cent rate increase, yet they’re reducing services that are so important to our residents and ratepayers.”

Council surveyed residents in late 2016, and one hundred per cent of respondents indicated they wanted the waste transfer stations to continue operating as they were.

For: Amanda Findley, Nina Cheyne, Joanna Gash, John Wells, John Levett, Kaye Gartner

Against: Andrew Guile, Pakes, Greg Watson, Mark Kitchener, Bob Proudfoot

Absent: Annette Alldrick