A petition of 1800 local residents calling on the Liberal Democrat/Labour Coalition-led Council to retain weekly bin collections is set to be debated at the Full Wokingham Borough Council meeting on Thursday 23rd March.
This follows a Council consultation where only 24 per cent of responders said that they liked the idea of fortnightly collections.
The petition, presented to Council last month, reflects concerns for larger families, for people who have more waste to dispose, such as nappies, and for residents who do not have room to store rubbish.
Wokingham Conservative Councillors would retain weekly waste collection and make savings by enabling residents to recycle more of their household waste. The cost to the Council of disposing of recycling is significantly cheaper than that of general waste.
The Council’s Liberal Democrat/Labour administration announced that it would be reducing weekly waste collections. This is despite the change being likely to cost millions of pounds to implement, and the policy not being in any of the Liberal Democrat/Labour coalition manifestos.
The Council consultation on waste did not include an option to retain the current system of weekly collection or blue bags, preventing local people from expressing a view. Responses to the consultation also show that 96 per cent said that they put out recycling every week. Under the Liberal Democrat proposals residents will only have recycling collected once a fortnight.
A move to fortnightly collections will see the same collection lorry continue to turn up every week at residents’ homes, but will take less of people’s waste than it previously did.
Conservative councillors have questioned where savings will be made, pointing out that the Council will have to purchase new wheelie bins for every home in the Borough, costing millions.
Despite other nearby authorities moving to fortnightly collections, previous Conservative administrations in Wokingham Borough have kept weekly waste collections for 20 years, through careful management of the Council's finances.
Cllr Norman Jorgensen, Shadow Executive Member for the Environment said “I am pleased that the petition I presented last month will be debated at Council.
“The Lib Dem/Labour Coalition didn’t give residents the chance to express their views on keeping weekly waste so Conservative Councillors have brought those views to them. Waste collection and recycling are important universal services. Residents are being expected to pay more for less – this is not value for money for taxpayers.
“We fear that this move to a less frequent service is going to cost the Council significantly more, to begin with, than the current weekly waste collection. And that future saving may not be borne out. No business case has been published for councillors and residents to look at.
“We have had considerable feedback from residents across the political spectrum that they don’t support this change; however, it is not too late to retain weekly bin collections.
"A vote for the Conservatives in May could return the Council to Conservative control. If so, we will cancel this decision and keep weekly collections.”
