Efforts by City of Rockingham residents to have their red-lidded bins collected weekly look to have been futile, with council staff and a committee recommending against the move.

Staff have also recommended that the city not commission an independent audit of its three-bin food organics garden organics waste system.

Their recommendations were presented to the city’s corporate and community development committee meeting on June 16.

The committee voted 4-2 in favour of rejecting returning to weekly collections, but 5-1 in favour of a proposal from Cr Kelly Middlecoat that the city ask the Auditor General to do a performance audit of the city’s waste services.

The council is scheduled to consider the committee’s recommendations at its June 23 meeting.

Cr Mike Crichton foreshadowed at the committee meeting he would present an alternative motion to the weekly collections.

FOGO has been riling up ratepayers in Rockingham since it came in last year, including the decision to collect the red general waste bin fortnightly.

A push to reinstate weekly collections was lost on a tied council vote last year.

Hundreds of residents packed the Gary Holland Community Centre in May calling for the weekly collections to return amid claims they were paying “full price for a half-rate service”.

City staff came out swinging against residents’ motions in their reports to the council this month, saying their claims were inaccurate and the meeting did not necessarily reflect what the community wanted.

“While the meeting had a high attendance rate, it does not necessarily demonstrate that a majority of City of Rockingham residents support a return to a weekly general waste collection service, noting that any change would result in increased waste service costs for all ratepayers,” a report to the council said.

“While it may address short-term community preferences of some residents it would undermine long-term environmental, operational and strategic outcomes.”

It warned if the city reverted to weekly collections it would have to hand back an $861,000 grant from the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation.

Costs would increase by about $5 million in the first year through handing back the grant, operational costs, having to buy three more waste trucks, and communicating the changes; and $2.5m thereafter.

“Reinstating a weekly general waste collection would substantially undermine the objectives of the FOGO transition,” the report said.

“Such a change would diminish the incentive for households to reduce the volume of waste sent to landfill and would reduce the quantity of organic material available for composting.

“Reverting to a weekly general waste collection would result in an overall over-servicing of households’ waste collection needs.”

Residents had complained the fortnightly collections had led to hygiene issues but the report said the city had received a minimal increase in complaints.

“Complaints relating to rodents have risen marginally, increasing on average by less than one additional complaint per month, while odour-related complaints have remained negligible,” it said.

Staff said an independent audit was not needed as the city had met all legislative and policy requirements and it was already subject to independent audits.

“All relevant project and contractor costs were identified, monitored and reported through appropriate council reports and bulletins,” they said.

“The city meets its obligations for accountability and transparency in the delivery of its waste management services.

“Any suggestion to the contrary is inaccurate, unsupported, and not reflective of the established governance and reporting framework.”

The original budget for introducing FOGO was $1.4m, which was later increased to $1.56m.

The council report said as at December 2025, the costs were within budget at $1.44m.

The city entered into a contract with Veolia for rubbish collection over a term of eight years at a cost of $80m. This came at an increase of $690,000 per year, or about $33 a week for the ratepayer.

Under the State Government’s FOGO rollout, councils which change to the system receive up to $25 per household.