TORY COUNCIL IN A MUDDLE ON BINS
January 12, 2010 11:02 PM
Originally published by South West Hertfordshire Liberal Democrats
Originally published by South West Hertfordshire Liberal Democrats
Dacorum Borough Council, in response to the bad weather before Christmas, delayed some bin collections but later announced it would work to "catch up".
Then, partly due to further bad weather and partly on the basis of cost this decision was reversed, and the "catch-up" abandoned. Instead black bin collection was stopped, with black bins out on the streets all round the town, and Christmas schedule was restored. Black bins were left and the council started trying to collect the green bins. But of course the residents, who were still waiting for the black ones to be emptied, had mostly not put the green bins out!
Councillors do not appear to have been consulted on this latter decision and Liberal Democrat Councillors believe it was a poor decision. It meant that some non-recyclable rubbish will now not be collected for a month, green bins are being missed and now we learn that the recycling boxes are not being collected.
Refuse collection is one of the main services provided by the council.
When this basic service goes wrong people have the right to know why, and not just be given a series of excuses. Local Liberal Democrat Councillor Christopher Townsend is appalled that some refuse in his ward may not be picked up for up to 6 weeks. He said, "there is already a large number of black bin sacks next to each of the black bins and this can only get worse. Many people do not have the means to take their rubbish to the tip (which is now a ten mile round trip following the closure of the Tring tip) and so it is important that this issue is addressed immediately".
"There have also been reports of rats scavenging around local shops, and have seen one sack of rubbish just dumped on the main road", he added.
Liberal Democrats have asked for the schedule to be changed and for the black bins to be collected as soon as possible. They are also insisting that the issue is put before the relevant scrutiny committee of the council. "We must know exactly what went wrong so that this situation does not arise again", said Cllr Denise Rance, the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group at Dacorum Borough Council. "Of course bad weather can delay collections, but this should never result in people not having their litter taken away for a whole month," she added.
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