Maureen and Dirk Scalongne have lived in Forest Lake for more than 20 years.
Dirk suffers from a debilitating and painful back condition, so when they found out Kerbside Collection was cut by the LNP-run Council, the elderly couple didn’t know what to do.
They applied for Council’s Good Neighbour Clean-Up Scheme which offers Kerbside Collection to Brisbane’s most vulnerable and elderly residents.
Despite being over the age of 60 and Dirk having a disability, they didn’t qualify.
“We were told that if we had family they could help us, but they don’t own a truck or anything, so Council told us to hire one and do it ourselves,” Mrs Scalongne Said.
She wrote in to her local Labor Councillor Charles Strunk who reached out to the Inala Lions Club with the predicament.
The club then offered to take Maureen and Dirk’s rubbish to the tip for them.
“When I heard about this elderly couple being refused Kerbside Collection by the LNP-run Council I had to act and it’s amazing to see how well the community responded.” Cr Strunk said.
Narella Shepard from the Inala Lions Club says they didn’t hesitate when they found out about the issue.
“I’m passionate about helping the local community,” Ms Shepard said.
“Money is nothing, it’s just to see the smiles on their faces when they were told that we were helping out.”
Kerbside was scrapped in April 2020 by LNP Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner.
The Forest Lake ward was set to have it’s 2019-20 collection run in the last few months of the financial year, but missed out.
A number of petitions were launched online to force the LNP Council to bring the community service back.
They received more than 6,000 signatures.
