Lib Dem campaigners in Bath are warning that Conservative plans to reduce waste collections to a fortnightly cycle will be a disaster for the city centre, and are calling for weekly collections to be maintained for key residential areas.
Councillor Andrew Furse (Kingsmead, Lib Dem) raised concerns at the Bath City Forum last month.
He said: “The Conservatives claim that fortnightly waste collections will improve street cleanliness and force people to recycle more. We fear that the exact opposite will happen in Bath city centre.”
“We are calling on the Cabinet member to recognise that one size does not fit all for the whole of B&NES and especially not for Bath city centre, which has particular needs and sensitivities.”
Lib Dem campaigner, Gerry Curran, a former Cabinet member for waste services and now the Lib Dem candidate for the Abbey ward by election, continued: “A large proportion of city centre residents live in flats or single rooms, with no storage for either recycling containers or black bags.
“The idea that they will be forced to store bags of rubbish in their homes for a fortnight at a time is ridiculous.”
“Even if all food waste is recycled, the remainder will not be inert. Think about nappies and non-recyclable food packaging. Keeping these bags indoors for a fortnight will be inconvenient, unhygienic and unpleasant and could represent a health hazard.”
“We want the Council to keep weekly rubbish collections for areas where there are a lot of flats, HMOs and converted heritage buildings, such as Bath city centre.”
Jay Risbridger, Lib Dem prospective Parliamentary candidate for Bath, added: “Many city centre residents are deeply concerned that this policy will lead to an increase in bin bags being left out on the street for weeks at a time, either in gull-proof sacks or loose when the sacks are full or missing, leading to more street mess and eyesores. This will have a massive impact on tourism and city centre businesses.”
“We are in favour of increasing recycling in B&NES – in fact recycling rates improved under the Lib Dem administration. However, these plans have come out of nowhere. During the local elections, the Tories promised to boost recycling through incentives, not through cutting bin collections.”
Speaking in July on the introduction of the plans to reduce waste collections, Cllr Martin Veal (Conservative, Bathavon North), Cabinet Member for Community Services, said: “Whilst other authorities across the country are moving to or considering three-weekly bin collections we are committed to keep our weekly collection service for recyclables and providing cleaner wheeled bins or gull proof sacks for the remaining rubbish collected every other week.
“We want families to have a first-class collection service and we continue to provide one of the most comprehensive recycling services in the country while dealing with reductions in funding from national government.
“Over the next year we want to work with families to see our recycling rates increase and so we don’t have to pay huge financial penalties.
“It costs up to £1,000 to dispose of each lorry load of rubbish, whilst every lorry load of recycled waste earns £100 – so reducing the amount being put out as non-recycled waste is essential.
“By reducing the waste and increasing recycling we’ll be helping not only to save council taxpayers’ money, which can be used on other essential public services, but keeping our streets cleaner and meeting our promises to tackle the issue of scavenger birds and animals – as part of a co-ordinated approach by the Council.”