Liberal Democrats on B&NES Council have raised concerns that the move to fortnightly residual waste collections, to be introduced next year by the Conservative administration, will happen with no consultation or pilot scheme.
Councillor Ian Gilchrist (Widcombe, Lib Dem) commented: “Councillors recently had the opportunity to ask questions about the waste review at a scrutiny committee meeting.
“I was concerned to hear that the move to fortnightly collections of landfill waste will happen without any pilot scheme having been carried out. Examples of schemes run by other Councils were considered adequate to make the change here in B&NES.”
“The Cabinet report on the waste review claimed that the new service was following a ‘tried and tested methodology’. However these methods have not been tried and tested in B&NES, which has a unique set of circumstances; not least the challenges relating to access and storage in the World Heritage City of Bath.”
“I fear that without a pilot, the changes will be introduced without a good understanding of the potential pitfalls.
“This could lead to implementation problems such as disrupted collections for residents and rubbish piling up in the streets, as was seen during the Kier industrial action debacle earlier this year.”
Councillor Neil Butters (Bathavon South, Lib Dem) added: “It is also a concern that no public consultation was carried out about these proposals.
“This is a significant change to the waste collection service and it is being introduced on the assumption of public support and with no opportunity for residents to give feedback on the proposals. The Conservative administration is clearly uninterested in listening to residents.”
“Many will doubtless support the scheme – Bath and North East Somerset residents have long been keen recyclers – but others, who may be very unhappy, have been given no opportunity to protest.
“The lack of consultation is also a missed opportunity, as residents could have given valuable feedback to improve the scheme, supplying local information which would not have been picked up by the desk-based modelling.”
“It does seem that this has not been fully thought through.”
Bath & North East Somerset Council issued the following statement: “The changes the Council is making to waste and recycling collections next year will improve recycling rates and tackle problems with street waste.
“There will continue to be three waste collections a fortnight – a recycling collection every week and residual waste collected every other week. In total 75% of all household waste can be recycled.
“This is a tried and tested system which has been successfully introduced by many councils across the country, with 69% of councils operating this system, including all our neighbouring authorities.
“Officers from Bath & North East Somerset have held detailed discussions with other councils where the implementation of this approach has proved successful and improved public satisfaction with the waste collection service.
“Undertaking a trial period would incur significant additional costs and disruption to the collection rounds.
“The Council is taking a flexible and pragmatic approach to the introduction of wheeled bins, recognising that such bins may not be suitable for all parts of the district or all households.
“In some sensitive areas – such as the historic centre of Bath – wheeled bins may be inappropriate so we will look at other solutions such as gull-proof bags.
“The Council will be undertaking a period of public engagement on these changes, including locations where wheeled bins are deemed unsuitable, in the months ahead.
“It is also important to note that 75% of all household waste can be recycled and that none of the remaining rubbish collected by the Council goes to landfill – however it costs £1,000 to send every lorry-load of rubbish off for reclamation – compared to earning £100 for every lorry load of recycling.”
Further info on the changes is available at: http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/recycling.
