January 31, 2008
Good riddance to bad rubbish
Great story on the front of the Telegraph today suggesting that the weekly bin round has been axed by half of England’s councils amid pressure on local government funding.
Expect to see (and smell) rubbish piling up on the streets as people struggle to get used to fortnightly collection.
This may sound esoteric but it’s the kind of thing that gets voters very exercised. I have seen the future and it looks a bit like Naples (see below).
Eric Pickles, Tory spokesman on local government, has been asking numerous parliamentary questions on the garbage issue.
He’s also just obtained a copy of the “enforcement manual” given to town hall bin inspectors by government. It advocates “zero tolerance” and fines for any of us who put our rubbish out at the wrong time.
My favourite part is the tips given to bin workers on how to handle furious householders. For example, they should say: “I am not prepared to carry on this interview whilst you are calling me a wanker and a jobsworth”.
More seriously it may not be long before many of us are paying for our litter collection, as is the norm on much of the Continent. Five councils have said they want to pilot a charging scheme but they aren’t revealing their identities; yet.
We are already paying for litter collection. Its called rates
Posted by: Coppin | February 1st, 2008 at 9:11 am | Report this commentYou know of course that around four times as many non-Labour councils as Labour ones have chosen to do this? And that many of them find it very satisfactory indeed? Try Rushcliffe in Ken Clarke’s constituency. Last summer I talked to the recently retired (Tory) council leader who had introduced fortnightly bins successfully there. It was successful and popular and recycling rates were storming ahead of the field.
Posted by: Chris Paul | February 2nd, 2008 at 11:25 pm | Report this commentI have set out in my blog (http://devilinthedetail.blogspot.com) the arrangements that are in place in my LibDem-controlled council and have to agree with Chris Paul’s view that this is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it works very well for most of the year - except if it’s very very hot when things can get a bit pongy!
However, I have to agree that any attempt to charge me for the amount of non-recyclable waste would be just another stealth tax introduced by this disreputable and incompetent Government and should be strongly resisted.
Posted by: Diablo | February 3rd, 2008 at 12:11 am | Report this comment