‘The question is, what are they going to be doing sustainably?’
The clean-up was organised by community members who are fed up with the pollution around Hillfox.
Welties residents who are sick and tired of the pollution that plagues Hillfox Value Centre organised a clean-up of the area on Monday, 17 December.
One resident in particular, Gareth Hall, who played an integral role in organising the clean-up, feels that the majority of the pollution has been brought to the centre by some of the centre’s largest businesses. “The pollution in and around Hillfox is because of the businesses, whether it’s them directly, or their customers,” he said.
In an effort to clean up some of the mess at the entrance to Hillfox on the Rhinoceros Road side, Gareth managed to gather close to 10 people to lend a helping hand with the clean-up. During their clean-up of the area, they found anything and everything from golf clubs to underwear and sanitary products, and of course heaps of beer bottles.
Three of the businesses at Hillfox also chipped in to help with the clean-up, with Cashbuild, Food Lovers Market, and Metro Hyper either chipping in by providing gloves and rubbish bags, or sending over some staff to assist with the initiative which lasted more than two hours for Gareth and his helpers. While Gareth is extremely grateful for how helpful the businesses were when called upon, the question he raised is what are they going to be doing in the long run.
“They were really great when we needed them, but the question I want to ask is, what are they going to be doing sustainably to keep the area clean on an ongoing basis?” he said. “It’s really sad to see the state of the centre, because it really should be kept clean.”
There was also another team on the Albert Street side of Hillfox that did their fair share of cleaning up on the public holiday.
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