Fortnightly Waste Collection - It's Rubbish!

5.15.06pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 4th Apr 2007

There are many of the boroughs residents who want to 'do their bit' for the environment but consider the fortnightly refuse collection to be counter productive particularly those with families who struggle to manage.

Although a Government report in March said they had found no evidence that fortnightly collections were a danger to health they admitted that residents would endure invasion by insects and vermin. The report from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs also said that residents will suffer worse living conditions and annoyance together with smells that may make them feel sick. Labour Ministers want to introduce a pay-as-you-throw rubbish tax, which could mean bills of £10 a week or more for a family. They would fit microchips to bins to snoop on the amount of rubbish inside.

Local Liberal Democrats are committed to maintain a weekly collection and re-introduce weekly collections in areas that are already on the fortnightly collection.

We would have a 20% smaller bin for the weekly collection of household waste and use the existing large wheelie bin for re-cycled waste and papers, which would be collected fortnightly. This system already works successfully in the Ribble Valley.

In our budget we said we will pay for the new bins and increased collections by scrapping 'Thrash the Trash', which is costing £750,000 this year and by improving efficiencies. Long term we would be hoping to purchase vehicles which would separate the waste and make more savings.

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