Dear Friend,
I thought you might be interested to read this
report written by officers from Reading Borough Council's Streetcare
team looking at the first 6 months of the alternate/waste recycling
scheme introduced in October.
I attended the meeting of Environment Scrutiny Committee where this report
was discussed and was pretty amazed to hear various Labour councillors blaming
residents for problems, rather than admitting that in parts of town such as
Redlands the scheme hasn't worked well (for structural reasons see below). I did
wonder for part of the meeting if some Councillors live on another planet or
maybe that should read Caversham!
Over the past 6 months I have received countless emails and calls from
residents about:
- missed collections
- slow/wrong delivery of bins
- Council flats without any wheelie bins
- Problems with green waste collection service and the fact it stopped so abruptly
- Massive amounts of black bags being left on pavements and streets
- Unsightly rubbish on London Road and Alexandra Road
Don't get me wrong, I do support the principle of alternate/waste recycling
as the only way to reduce the amount we send to landlfill but when it was
proposed last year I urged the Council not to introduce a blanket, one-size fits
all scheme as I predicted that there would be problems with terraces, flats and
houses of multi-occupation.
Since the scheme was introduced, I spend a lot of time reporting
flytipping of black bags all around the ward to the Council because
Streetcare refuse to collect them at the same time as when they collect wheelie
bins, which seems to me crazy.
The Council's current policy seems to be (and I heard it again on
Tuesday evening) - when in doubt give residents bigger bins - which in fact
encourages people to throw away more and not recycle. I think a better solution
would be to increase what can be recycled on the doorstep and therefore reduce
the need to put waste into grey bins...
On a positive note, I am pleased to read in the report that officers are
now acknowledging the problems we face in Redlands with large numbers of
absentee landlords who let out student houses. In my view they
should be penalised for letting their properties get into such a state and
neither the University nor the Council reallly wants to deal with them. I
am disappointed it has taken the Council so long to get moving on building new
bottle banks in Redlands, as I gave them a list of potential sites months ago -
with luck this should be happening soon.
Members of the Committee have agreed to review the scheme in 6 months time
so that the effectiveness of the scheme in the summer months can be assessed. I
know a number of residents have expressed their concerns to me about the
combination of hot sun and overflowing bins...
Anyway, as always I would be interested to hear your views, as well
as any particular problems you are having with waste/recycling collections.
Meanwhile I will continue to campaign for more reliable collections, better
street cleaning, and an increase in the range of materials that can be
recycled.
Best wishes,
Daisy
Daisy
Redlands Lib Dems Focus Team
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