The Gold Coast City Council has agreed to pay $15,000 to take part in Garage Sale Trail 2013, a not-for-profit community initiative held nationally on October 26 to stop unwanted items ending up in landfill.
But the decision to take part was not an easy one, with seven out of 15 councillors yesterday voting against the initiative.
Carrara councillor Bob La Castra labelled the small spend as one of the most ridiculous wastes of money he had seen, while Broadbeach councillor Paul Taylor said it was "absurd".
Those against the decision argued there was no way Gold Coasters could get around to hundreds of garage sales in a day and it would be impossible for sellers to make any profit.
The program involves households, schools, community groups, sporting clubs, charities and businesses registering online.
Profits can be kept or donated to a charity or cause. For the fee, organisers work with the council to provide a registration website, mobile application, national and local media coverage, publicity material and local area maps of listed garage sales.
The success of the 2010 Garage Sale Trail led to it becoming a national event.
Last year 30 local government areas took part, with 150,000 people involved as buyers and sellers Australia-wide.
The average funds raised per household for the Sunshine Coast Council were $400.
Southport councillor Dawn Crichlow said the trail was a good initiative for the Coast. "It's both to get money for the people for their garage sales and get money for charities," Cr Crichlow said.
"We already fund community offices that have street meets with people.
"This is a way of getting streets together to have a once-a-year garage sale. It will stop illegal dumping."
Cr La Castra said claims the initiative reduced waste for landfill were ridiculous.
"I can think of a lot better things to do with $15,000 of ratepayers' money than send this to private organisations that aren't really doing anything of benefit to anyone," he said.
"This isn't going to benefit organisations at all. If we hold them all on the same day people won't be able to get around.
"People will likely, or almost certainly, lose out on revenue."
The event organisers could not be contacted by the Bulletin yesterday.
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