The Sutherland Shire Council has pulled the plug on its twice-yearly cleanup service after issues with broken-down trucks and reduced staff numbers left many streets inundated with unwanted junk:
The council resolved at a meeting on Monday to replace the biannual rubbish pick-up with a twice-yearly ‘‘on-call’’ collection.
[…]
The change followed the disastrous clean-up over December and January, which saw some streets waiting up to two weeks for kerbside rubbish piles to be cleared.
[…]
During Monday night’s debate, several councillors condemned the most recent clean-up and claimed it had made the shire look like Beirut.
The article mentions the names of a few councilors but does not mention who actually made the comment. Nevertheless, I will be sending out a looks like Beirut certificate to the whole lot. Here’s a photo describing what the councilors believe Beirut looks like:
Sutherland Shire Council has shelved the twice-yearly council clean-up following scenes such as this one on Burraneer Bay Road earlier this year. Picture: James Alcock
While the certificates make their way half-way across the planet, I leave you with this photo of Beirut complete with daytime street lights, the white plastic chair parking protector and the against-all-odds, against-all-traffic moped:
beirut street scene by stevendamron -- via flickr