Turner Street residents up in arms over Turvey Park 'dumping ground'

Turner Street resident Noel Christie has just sold his house after living in the area for many decades and said while part of the street has long been a dumping ground, it's been getting worse of late with piles of dirt and junk decorating the streetscape.

While the northernmost end of Turner Street is wide and clean, the southern section from Wooden to Urana streets narrows significantly, with a wide nature strip turned dirt road that also doubles as a dumping ground.

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During the time he has lived in the area, Mr Christie said has had to re-paint the house three times, attributing part of the blame on dust from the dumping ground, with dust also travelling across from the nearby Wagga Showground.

"The dust [from there] comes and settles on the house and while I've tried to hose it off the best I can, I've had to paint it three times," he said.

Neighbour Bryn Mathew has lived up the street for about a decade and has noticed a marked decline in that time.

"About five years ago [the dumping] started to happen more regularly," Mr Mathew said.

He said it's not always clear who is behind the dumping.

Fellow concerned Turner Street resident Bronte Nalder said the unsealed "dirt road" adjacent to the narrow street is not in keeping with the "beautiful suburb."

"The fact residents essentially use a dirt road to access their driveways in a central part of Wagga is not really acceptable," she said.

She residents driving the "dirt road" to access their houses stir up dust that then enters houses opposite.

"My husband has written to council on this issue and they didn't really have much to say," she said.

Ms Nalder would like to see the nature strip converted into a sealed road between Wooden and Urana Streets, with the creation of a nature strip in the centre of the street, as has been done around the corner on Lindsay Street.

"There is the potential to make this street into two roads which could look quite nice," she said.

Ms Nalder echoed calls for council to fix the problem.

"Our number one priority is to stop having things dumped on the corner here," she said.

"The second priority would be to do proper roadworks to make this place into a proper and acceptable street."

A spokesperson for Wagga City Council said there have only been three customer requests about dumped rubbish at the location, and a further three relating to dumped soil and gravel, since 2016.

"Council employees have attended and arranged clean-up for the three cases of dumped rubbish," the spokesperson said.

"The other three requests involving soil and gravel have been cleared away promptly by those who placed it there."

The spokesperson said Council "always encourages" feedback or requests from residents when they identify something in the city or surrounding villages that could be made safer or improved.

In response to calls to make the street more in line with the surrounding suburb, council said it currently has no revitalisation plans in the pipeline.

"The community is encouraged to be involved in the development of Council's many plans and strategies that inform the work that is to be undertaken in our local government area," the spokesperson said.

"These plans and strategies are published online for our community's access.

"If residents have identified something specific that they would like to draw Council's attention to, a request can be submitted via Council's website, by calling our customer service team on 1300 292 442 or visiting the team in the Civic Centre."

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