Liberal Democrat councillors have forced through a decision to scrap food caddy liners with support from Labour, despite fears it will reduce food waste recycling.
Conservative Councillors had brought a ‘Call In’ of the original decision, having found that it was made in breach of the Council’s rules.
Caddy liners have previously been paid for by savings generated within the waste service.
An extraordinary meeting of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee on Monday evening, looked again at the Liberal/Labour policy of scrapping food caddy liners.
The Call In had been brought by Wokingham Borough Conservative councillors who had found the decision had been made behind closed doors, without public consultation, and had not followed proper process.
Council officers acknowledged that a saving could have been made if caddy liners had been kept, and that the Council had failed to provide proper notice of the intention to stop caddy bags.
The Executive Member for Environment, Sport and Leisure, Cllr Ian Shenton, conceded that a review of the policy could be needed to monitor the effect of scrapping caddy liners on food waste recycling and the targeted increase in food waste recycling to provide a further saving in waste disposal costs of £350k.
Despite this, Liberal Democrat councillors, supported by Labour councillor Andy Croy, voted to continue to scrap caddy liners.
Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, Leader of the Conservative Group, said: “As the Leader of the Council has previously said, scrapping caddy liners will discourage people from recycling their food waste, creating more blue bag household waste that will increase the Council’s costs, not decrease them.
“I am pleased that the Executive Member has agreed to keep a close eye on the food recycling performance and to review his decision to scrap the free liners if necessary, to ensure that the Council stands some chance of meeting its £350k target for additional food waste recycling this year.
Cllr Jorgensen continued, “The Council’s Constitution provides an important framework for decision making. I am disappointed that the Labour member, Cllr Andy Croy, did not vote to recognise the clear breaches in the Constitution which were admitted by officers at the meeting. The Conservative Opposition will continue to fight for local residents, transparency and openness.”
