Push for weekly bin service in Ryedale fails (From Gazette & Herald)

Push for weekly bin service in Ryedale fails

11:29am Wednesday 3rd February 2010 in Letters By David Jeffels

COUNCILLORS have vetoed moves to bring back weekly wheelie bin collections after being told it could cost taxpayers £450,000.

The district council’s community services committee received a 500-signature petition from Coun Paul Andrews asking for the weekly green bin refuse collections to be restored either year-round or in the school summer holidays.

Coun Andrews said that if the council opted to have just two or three extra collections during the summer holiday, it would avoid the risk of smell and attracting vermin. It was wrong, he said, to make cuts which could affect public health.

But Phil Hancock, the authority’s head of environmental services, said costs of restoring the weekly refuse collection would be between £400,000 and £450,000, and even a weekly collection just in the summer holidays would cost between £80,000 and £100,000.

In addition he told councillors, recycling levels were likely to drop, CO2 levels would rise through vehicle use, extra vehicles would have to be hired and there would also be cost of staff and fuel.

After the meeting Coun Andrews said: “It is beyond belief that the committee accepted, without asking for a full report, the officers’ statement that it would cost £450,000 to bring in all-year-round green bin collections, and £80,000-£100,000 (almost a quarter of the annual cost) for three extra collections in the summer. Some further explanation was required than just a single flimsy sheet of A4.

“Further, I do not understand how the council can save only £24,000 from a reduction of four or five winter brown bin collections, but would have to pay £80,000-£100,000 for just three additional summer collections.

“This too requires a full report with a full detailed explanation. Could it be that the savings are in fact much greater but that resources used for brown bin collection are simply being diverted to other purposes which have nothing to do with bins, or could the estimated cost of doing extra green bin collections have been exaggerated?

“There may well be official advice to the effect that a fortnightly green bin collection does not create a public health hazard, but this is not the view of most people I talk to, or I believe, of the public in general.”

Speaking at the meeting, Coun Howard Keal said he believed residents had adapted to the new collection system and he feared changes could have “a catastrophic” effect on recycling which would hit the council financially with the increased cost of landfill.

“People signed the petition with the best of intentions but without knowledge of the financial figures, he said.

The committee agreed to accept the petition but to take no further action.