By Derek Schlennstedt
Peace has once again returned to Belgrave after a brief dispute broke out regarding the cigarette bins in Belgrave.
The bins came under fire after the Belgrave Traders Association met with Council for a compliance meeting regarding the responsibilities of the Traders Association.
The only outstanding issue was the maintenance of the cigarette bins, which according to Council should not have been under the trader’s remit.
Belgrave Traders Association Vice President Billy Crombie said the association is mainly responsible for the marketing of the town, but they were more than happy to continue maintaining the cigarette bins.
“This was the only problem with the remit,” Ms Crombie said.
“The issue is that council was saying that in the charter of the Belgrave traders it wasn’t our responsibility.”
“We said ‘no problems, if we can’t do them someone has to,’ but council was hesitant to take that on board.”
Since then, Council has met with the Belgrave Traders Association with the decision being made for the Traders to retain responsibility of the bins.
“Council staff recently met with the Belgrave Traders Association regarding the emptying and cleaning of cigarette butt bins in Belgrave,” Director of Social and Economic Development, James Collins said.
“We have all agreed to continue the status quo, where maintenance of the cigarette bins will be managed by the Belgrave Traders Association”.
