Monday, July 16, 2007

Fortnightly rubbish collections

MPs say that fortnightly rubbish collections are not right for every area.

The Department for the Environment says it is disappointed with their report.

I say that it is nothing to with either of them.

If central government doesn't allow local councils to decide how they collect people's rubbish, what will it allow them to do?

Looking at the Lib Dem blogs, Politically Restricted has a report headed MPs report on rubbish collections is backing for Southwark stance. But if the Lib Dems want the rubbish collected weekly in Southwark they should fight local elections on that platform. They don't need Westminster to tell them if they are right or wrong. That is a decision for the voters of Southwark.

Meanwhile, Norfolk Blogger asks Weekly bin collections instead of fortnightly - Are people prepared to pay for them? The answer, I imagine, is that some people are, some people are not and different councils will come to different solutions.

I suspect the truth is that weekly collections are suitable in urban areas (like Southwark) and that fortnightly collections are suitable in more rural areas (like most of Norfolk). But it is not a question with which central government or underemployed backbench MPs need concern themselves.

3 comments:

dreamingspire said...

Finer detail is needed, plus some encouragement to certain residents. Where I live there are areas in the old (Victorian and earlier) parts of the city where weekly is appropriate and other areas where fortnightly is fine - each area or even street needs separate assessment. Its like the residents parking zone story from one London Borough: the court told the Council to go back and plan the scheme properly. We need competent Councils, and too often don't get them, no matter who is in control.

Anonymous said...

In all that's been written on this, I've not seen anyone mention this quote from the report itself: "Our strongest conclusion is that local councils are better placed than anyone, central Government included, to know what will work best for their local areas." How is this any different to what you're saying Jonathan? Did you bother to read the report?

Simon said...

When thinking about fortnightly collections, I'm reminded of a woman in the Manchester branch of the Co-op bank who, not looking where she was going, walked into a seating area and found she couldn't get to the tills. She started grumbing loudly about how being made to walk further was bad for disabled people, of which she clearly wasn't one.

Many of the loudest voices complaining about fortnightly bin collections are in an ideal situation to make it work. They have gardens, so there is no problems with smelly bins as with a teeny tiny bit of thought and effort they need not put anything in their bins that would cause them to get smelly.

A lot of food is wasted because people are too lazy or selfish to think about what they eat. Rather than cook that bit of meat that needed using up, they have something they really wanted or order a take-away.

People are too quick to blame others for problems that are mostly caused by their own laziness and ignorance.