The Armadale ‘Drop n Shop’ has reopened after it was unexpectedly ‘closed until further notice’ in the first week of December.
The City of Armadale announced the reopening of the Reuse Centre on Hopkinson Rd last Wednesday, with a new location and new hours of business: Thursday and Friday 10am to 2pm.
But locals were quick to criticise the news, with many saying it left working people in the lurch.
“Only Thursday and Friday? Do you actually want people to use this service?” one local said.
“After work or weekends is when most people would have time or inclination to go there. We really do need to close the cycle and send less to landfill/incineration, but we need access and infrastructure to do so,” another said.
The City of Armadale explained that “staffing challenges” had impacted their “ability to extend hours at this time”.
“We understand the current opening hours are limited and may not suit everyone’s needs,” they said.
“We’re actively working on a solution and will update the community as soon as we can expand our availability.”
The Examiner asked for clarification about the staffing issues and how many more staff members are needed to expand the opening hours outside business hours and on weekends.
We also asked whether the city has considered advertising paid roles to fill these vacancies, noting that the Drop ‘n’ Shop is primarily staffed by a team of volunteers, and there are currently no job positions at the Reuse Centre being advertised on the CoA website.
City of Armadale CEO Joanne Abbiss explained “the city is not currently advertising jobs at the Reuse Centre, as we are trialling the use of a portion of the existing main area, that is already staffed, to see if this assists in maximising resource recovery”.
“This trial is using the resource recovery platform, where customers come to dispose of items, to provide customers convenient access to recycled materials and enable the city to optimise existing staffing resources as we have had some challenges maintaining a safe level of staffing at the Reuse Centre,” she continued.
“The city is continuously reviewing the activities on site to ensure we are providing the safest and best resource recovery services to our residents.
“Feedback from the current trial will inform how the Reuse Shop operates in the future, including support from volunteers. Ensuring the safety of all our staff, volunteers and site users is our highest priority.”
Feedback online has already noted that many people wanting to use the Drop ‘n’ Shop currently have to wait in a (sometimes long) queue to go over the weighbridge, which acts as a disincentive to use the service.
And many others have noted the steep rise in prices in-store over the past year or so.
“People don’t want to pay $200 for something you used to be able to grab for a six pack,” one local offered.
