Croydon Council has rejected the government's cash incentive to scrap its new fortnightly bin collection scheme.
Did it consult the voters before doing this? Well, what do you think?
Councillor Phil Thomas, cabinet member for environment and highways, said Croydon's new food waste recycling service will not be confined to the rubbish dump.
Because it’s employing all those council staff and it’s green and it’s trendy and…look, just
shut up, you haters!
Cllr Thomas told the Advertiser the plan would not be dropped despite Mr Pickles' claim that weekly rubbish collection was a 'basic right'
"We are committed to the scheme because we can see the economic and environmental benefits," he said.
"A lot of other local authorities have introduced this exact service and they have found no problem with it.
"We've only just rolled it out and I see no reason to change anything. In fact, I've been surprised with how good the response has been."
And suddenly, it’s
Labour who are in ‘oh, why not consult the voters?’ mode:
Labour leader Tony Newman, an outspoken critic of the new service, called on his rival to reconsider.
"I am genuinely stunned that Cllr Thomas is not prepared to look again or to at least delay the plan and meet Mr Pickles," he said.
"A system like this is fine if you live in a Sussex village and have a long driveway.
You can put the food waste out and forget about the smell of rotting rubbish and rancid nappies.
"But in boroughs like Croydon, which have growing levels of multiple occupancy housing and a significant number of people living in flats, it is going to cause serious problems."
Well, indeed. But then, as it’s Croydon, who’s going to notice anyway?
11 comments:
And Tory Welwyn Hatfield have turned it down too.
http://thepurplescorpion.blogspot.com/2011/10/no-weekly-rubbish-collections-for-us.html
In Bilbao, rubbish collection is daily. The city is on average six-storeys high. We do have a high concentration of rubbish.
We have communal bins that the rubbish lorries pick up and empty mechanically. Sorry lads, the union might protest but, progress is progress.
The bins are sanitised on a regular basis.
In newly revitalised areas we have pneumatic underground collection.
Recycling is in 3 different communal bins:
- Paper and cardboard
- Glass
- Plastics,juice containers and all metal cans.
All emptied by lorries that at the most have a driver and helper.
Business rubbish is also daily.
I cannot for the life of me understand the councils that think storing 2 weeks of rotting and fermenting rubbish at home is a good thing.
When I visit my father in the dear old UK, I cannot believe it. Its so confusing he can't even explain the system to me.
You are bordering on the disgusting, and the fuss you make about it instead of just doing it..
This is a basic function of councils. Why are you messing around with it. Too busy doing stuff which isn't a basic function???
Spain? The country where some councils doubt if they can afford to keep collecting rubbish at all?
We only need to ask councils to do four things things: Fix the street lights, maintain the roads, cut the grass verges and empty the bins.
We might concede that there is a fifth function, which is to provide a certain amount of social housing to responsible, native-born people.
For all that we would happily pay a half of what we do currently. The upside is they will have a little less to do in terms of helping the town look decent and its citizens stay happy (and a smaller carbon footprint as less needs for vast car parks to enable easy access for the council workers who prefer to travel in from outside the borough), but considerably less to do in providing extra signs, diversity outreach co-ordinators, highly paid chief executives, pandering to trade unions and finding translators for immigrants to understand why they have been excused paying fines for putting their free car on some double-yellow lines.
Okay... the last bit I made up, but the principle is there.
Less council means less stress. Let's try it!
Gosh, what a shock this isn't, eh? Let's have a guess at the next surprise to come out of this. Um, let me see... the taxpayers won't get their quarter billion quid back off Eric Pickles?
@John Page
I admit, Bilbao is an very unusual case with zero municipal debt.
Can't say the same for our provincial council though (which is also our tax authority, setting and collecting taxes and paying the state for its services through an annual quota like the other 2 Basque provinces and Navarra).
"And Tory Welwyn Hatfield have turned it down too."
GAH!!!
"I cannot for the life of me understand the councils that think storing 2 weeks of rotting and fermenting rubbish at home is a good thing."
Nope, me neither.
Totally hoodwinked by the 'green' nonsense, or in bed with the recycling companies are the only two theories that make a lick of sense...
"Less council means less stress. Let's try it!"
Sadly, we seem to have a population conditioned to expect 'the government' to provide them with everything...
Such snobbishness re.Croydon. And you earn 28K a year? Can you afford to live there? Fool.
"Such snobbishness re.Croydon. And you earn 28K a year? Can you afford to live there?"
Why would I want to..!?
If the world needed an enema, Croydon is where God would shove the pipe.
The authorities have no problem with it so that makes it OK then? This is why I firmly support local referenda on local issues affecting everyone.
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