Scrutiny - Community Committee

So here we are - the cut and thrust of Committee meetings.

My first on was today - Scrutiny - Community.

Back in January, this Scrutiny Committee asked officers for a report on the cost of returning to a weekly waste collection. This was asked for by Tory Cllr John Winterbottom, who no longer sits on this committee.

It appears that he is still the best brain to present the case for the opposition as he was allowed to introduce the debate under Standing Order 44.

Much discussiion ensued including my contribution - as follows:

In respect of this, why are we listening to the VOCAL MINORITY who want a return to weekly rubbish collections. I want to speak up for the SILENT MAJORITY.

When campaigning in Cowick [especially at the height of the furore over the early january period] almost everyone welcomed the fortnightly collection. maybe a handful of people wished to revert to weekly collections.

Cllr Crow recently did a well-published stint with the refuse collection team - and in all her reports in various bits of media [e.g. E&E 03 June 2011, "Councillor calls for weekly bin rounds"], she mentioned that within 2 days black bin ags were appearing in the back alleys.

Back in January, the Chair convened a Special meeting of this Committee [I was one of 3 people not a councillor sitting in the public gallery at what one of the others there referred to as "the best show in town tonight"] and heard clearly what Robert Norley had to say in his excellent report [appended to the printed minutes]

On the constraints, he said: " The Council is a waste collection authority, and its role is to collect household waste from homes, which presented for collection in the right place, at the right time and in the right receptacle."

Clearly what Cllr Crow saw was one out of three conditions met.

In the same vein, I ask why the press and other media are so interested in the BAD news regarding rubbish collection. They only seem to be interested when it goes wrong. over the extended Easter break it all went so well - but where was the news in the national media?

I'm much more interested in the GOOD news. The good news when recycling rates are up, giving us an income of over £1million from selling recyclets and gaining recycling credits along with the reduction in landfill tax.

All this is achieved by the Alternate Weekly Collect [AWC] - collecting recyclables from the green bin one week, and waste from the grey bin the next.

Using reseach from BusinessGreen, [James Murry "Greenest Government Ever - Has no-one told Eric Pickles?" 01 June 2011] I've read a recent report by WYC Environment ["Review of Kerbside Recycling Collections Schemes in the UK in 2009/10] which found that the vast majority of the top 30 recycling councils, and all of the top 10, use AWC, whuile repeated reports have shown that the more residual rubbish collection you provide, the more garbage people throw out.

And there is [anecdotal] evidence to suggest that those few Conservative councils that have moved back to weekly collections after trailing AWC have seen recycling rates stall, or fall again.

I want to see our recycling rates conitnue to rise..and that's why I will continue to support AWC."

The Tory motion was rejected, especially when my speech helped convince Lib Dem Cllr Sheila Hobden of the continued success of AWC. She said returning to weekly waste collection would be "a retrograde step".

Much else was discussed in a long, long meeting. And I had to return to work up at the Exeter Northcott at the conclusion of the meeting at 21:15.