GARDEN WASTE COLLECTION CHANGES PROPOSED

I chaired the Waste Collection Advisory Group today. This was our first meeting after the summer and a very important one because we discussed the results of the consultation meetings that the council has been carrying out across the borough over the summer about the changes to our waste collection services. It was our job to review the details of the consultation and make a recommendation to the Council’s Executive about changes to the service.

On the whole the new waste collection policies are supported by local people and the amount of waste going to landfill is down by over 8 per cent and glass recycling is up by over 60%. But the new garden waste collection charge was very unpopular.

My colleague Councillor John Drage proposed a number of changes to the scheme on behalf of the Liberal Democrat’s on the Council including scrapping the £35 charge per bag for garden waste collection. This change is supported by an overwhelming majority of local people who responded to the consultation and in the current financial climate with rising food and fuel prices putting so much pressure on family budgets we feel that this is the wrong approach.

In brief the new proposals are:

A. To retain all of the changes introduced in June except the Garden Waste charge of £35 per bag.

B. To make the following changes to the garden waste collection arrangements:

* To wind up the current charging scheme at the end of October;
* To give an appropriate refund to those who have bought jute sacks;
* To return to a ‘free’ fortnightly collection for November and December, but with a limit for each household of two 120-litre plastic sacks, or three 75-litre jute sacks;
* To introduce a ‘free’ fortnightly collection from April to December each year with a limit of two 120-litre plastic sacks, or three 75-litre jute sacks for each household;
* From April ’09 households wanting to dispose of more garden waste than the free service limit will be able to buy extra sacks for £1 per bag per collection.

We are grateful to everyone who has taken the time to respond to our consultation. Here in Sutton we all have a proud record in recycling but sometimes we can get things wrong and when we do it is important to say so and listen to you and take action. We hope that you will agree that this is the best way to respond to the wishes of local people.