We work hard to fix problems large and small in the ward and this week was no exception.
Last year we successfully campaigned for the first ever glass recycling facilities to be installed in the ward. Labour-run Reading Borough Council had failed for many years to deliver even these basic glass recycling facilities.
The bottle bank on Erleigh Road has proved very popular with students and local residents and last July we reported that they were regularly overflowing.
During the past 12 months residents from the local area have been contacting us regularly asking for the banks to be emptied by the Council more regularly.
Messages like this one last month were typical:
"Just to say the Erleigh rd Green, and clear bottle banks are full and the brown is nearly full, there are also bottles left on the pavement, best to empty them, as now is the time students are leaving and getting rid of there accumulated bottles and rubbish, before they move out before July."
Each time I had an email from a resident on this subject I wrote to the Council and asked them to change the frequency of collections , but, still things stayed the same.
Then, earlier this week, I received an email from an officer in Streetcare:
"I have asked the contactor to change the emptying schedule from every 2 weeks to weekly starting from next week. "
I was perhaps, disproportionately happy about this, but, judging from the feedback I've had so far people living in the area are very pleased too.
I had this sweet message from one regular correspondent of the roads of Erleigh Road:
"Just to say thanks – a few little things that make living in Redlands better"
I wish it hadn't taken the Council a year to listen to residents and sort this problem out but I'm glad to have played a small part in making life a little more pleasant for people who live in this area.
There's nothing wrong with a bit of nagging to get things done. In fact it's something which Lib Dem MP for Hornsey and Woodgreen, Lynne Featherstone (a bit of a mentor of mine), has turned into a bit of an artform!
UPDATE:
The Reading Chronicle takes up the story.
Comments