VINCENT is considering canning bulk verge collections after the most recent round kicked up a stink.

At Tuesday night’s council meeting, Cr Joshua Topelberg moved a motion to request City administration does not proceed with a tender or quotations for bulk verge collection beyond the current contract.

Cr Topelberg relayed a story from the most recent collection involving a freezer full of, what neighbours assumed, was old meat sitting in the summer sun.

“There was a property on Raglan Road where a freezer was on the verge for two weeks,” he said.

“At the point it was collected, the door opened and whatever was inside, by that stage we assumed rotting meat, liquid ran along their front verge.

“After a city inspection, we had to go back and replace the mulch on the front verge.

“The smell hadn’t dissipated after two days.”

Cr Topelberg said while he had been a “kerb surfer” back in the day, Gumtree and Buy Nothing groups meant most items of value were snapped up before a collection, resulting in broken and soiled items dominating the kerbs.

He said it was especially difficult on people living nearby a vacant lot or a park, or those who were the first to put items out with “six or seven mattresses” stacking up outside homes.

“Neighbours see it as a dumping ground,” he said.

“The community may have been broadly split a couple of years ago over the value of collections, but I think that value seems to have well and truly disappeared.”

The councillor said this year had been the worst for complaints from the community, something echoed by Cr Susan Gontaszewski and Mayor Emma Cole.

Vincent’s bulk hard waste options are set to be examined soon as part of the City’s waste strategy.

“I feel this plots the course already defined by our waste strategy… but it punctuates it a little more,” Mayor Cole said.

The motion was passed unanimously, and administration is set to provide a report to council by June with alternative options for bulk collection.

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