Doretta
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Update 7th August 2007We welcome our new members and thank you all for joining our Campaign. Your comments about the difficulties you are having with fortnightly collections are really helpful - especially where your councils have given poor responses when you have made complaints. We welcome enquiries about setting up local Campaigns and will give any help we can to residents and Councillors.
We are amazed at the amount of media interest there has been this year. Refuse collection and recycling are such important issues for us all. It is one service that we all rely upon but unfortunately people are being deterred from recycling because of the risk of fines if they either accidentally contaminate bins or place rubbish for collection on the wrong day.
The reports of attacks on refuse collectors are extremely worrying. We repeat that they do not make the rules - ultimately your Councillors do, and any complaints should be directed first to your local council and then to your Councillor if the response is unsatisfactory.
We are receiving reports that even more residents are employing private contractors to take their waste. They should not have to pay twice to receive a service which should be covered within council tax payments. More private competition is quite likely and eventually may have the effect of making council schemes redundant, especially if "pay as you throw" schemes are brought in. It would certainly be preferable to be treated as a customer rather than an inconvenience!
At least 12 councils have reverted to weekly general waste collections, the latest announcement from Blackburn with Darwen Council where they will phase in the return in stages. 2 more councils have introduced weekly collections in summer months only, which is a help to residents.
We appreciate councils are under pressure to increase recycling rates. However, their first duty is to the residents in their boroughs and it is not too much to ask to have perishable waste collected once a week. In many parts of Europe daily collections or twice weekly are the norm.
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