Redlands Liberal Democrats

Redlands Ward Surgery

Our councillors' Surgery will be held on Saturday 17 May in the church hall at St Lukes, on Erleigh Rd. Feel free to come along any time between 10 am and 12 noon. Click here to see future ward surgery dates.

Newsletter - RBC Recycling Update

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

 

Redlands Lib Dems Focus Team