St Vincent de Paul Society Canberra/Goulburn (Vinnies) is the new operator of the reusable facilities at Mugga Lane and Mitchell resource management centres, replacing long-time, privately owned contractor The Green Shed.
Workers of The Green Shed, which has been operating the sites for 11 years, will be offered employment by Vinnies.
“I acknowledge that the workers as well as the community may be shocked or saddened to hear of the change of provider,” says executive branch manager for ACT NoWaste, Dr Margaret Kitchin.
In acknowledging the contributions and services provided by The Green Shed over the past decade, Dr Kitchin said they were a familiar and “much loved” provider of reusable goods, but didn’t touch on the reasons for them losing the contact.
The new contract starts on May 31 for an initial service term of four years with possible extensions up to another two years.
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![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
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