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Blog: Our bin service is fine as it is thanks, Mr Pickles
Friday 30th September 2011, 9:55AM BST.
Blog: It takes a lot to make me react first thing in the morning, writes Thom Kennedy.
You could knock me on the knee with a mallet and have time to make a cup of tea and bacon sandwich before I kick out my leg.
So the bolt-open gob and squawking sound I made on hearing the news that the Government is to invest a quarter of a billion quid in delivering weekly bin collections around the country must have suggested that I was pretty shocked.
Before we even consider how much is being spent to make this happen in the national economic context, let’s ask the question of whether it’s really necessary.
In both the different local authority areas in which I have lived in the last year, I have been burdened with the supposed hardship of alternating waste and recycling bin collections.
And for the fact that I’m not a person who particularly reads leaflets which come through my door (I gave up trying to read council paraphernalia after attempting to understand a list of swimming pool opening times which appeared to be written in binary code) it has created no difficulty whatsoever.
In fact, at no point in any of my conversations at the pub, in half-time chats at the football, in snatched snippets of conversation overheard on the train or bus, have I ever heard anybody complain about their bin collection.
Worrying about your bin seems to be the sole preserve of Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.
So in what sense is this an important use of £250 million? How can the coalition continue to condemn waste in the previous regime, however justifiable that might be, when this kind of decision is being made?
Apart from anything else, and perhaps most frustratingly, once this money is distributed, it will be dead.
It’s not going to bring back council jobs or be spent on new contracts, so it’s not going to get recirculated into the economy, so it’s not going to do anything to help restore the country’s financial strength.
It’s going to fill black holes in council coffers, and at best pay overtime for a handful of staff.
The economy is gasping like a landed cod and businesses are crying out for investment to help get money moving, yet here is £250 million being dumped in the bins.
But there are so many other, more appropriate uses for £250 million, whether used to inject finance into companies desperate for the investment needed to help them grow, to restore the EMA allowing students to go to college, to reintroduce the SureStart schemes which bring so much relief to young mothers, to prevent the loss of thousands of army and navy jobs. The list goes on.
It’s quite common for parties to make populist pledges in the run-up to their annual conference, but if this is what our leaders think the country is demanding then you have to ask: Do they even know what’s going on out here in the real world?
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I would urge the Government to rethink this stupid idea, which is a complete and utter waste of money…. as the writer states, more useful in re-instating other ‘lost’ schemes, ie. EMA, which my children would not have managed without…..as I am a single parent, on low wages, working hard to get my children the best education available..
We have all gotten used to the twice=weekly collections and the recycling _ even having to use recycling, even if its only to make room in the bin, which is a great thing! but they will get ‘lazy’ again and fill the bins without thinking about it again…… Use
your brains, andthe money wiser! make us keep recycling!
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Could not agree more. I’m happy with my waste collections from Telford and Wrekin. Lets put that $250m into preserving children’s services the NHS,ensuring our young people have the prospects of useful work and that our cultural experience is enriched. If that’s not enough money lets have some redistribution to make a fairer society.
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A waste of money that could be better spent. It will encourage people to use general bin rather than bothering to recycle.
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Well said that man
it would be a “waste” of money to allow lazy people to thrown EVEN more stuff away
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Why not introducs Freddie back to collect bulk waste once a year for all and recycle plastic has made a great difference so leave it as it is now maybe 1 extra collection at christmas would be a good idea.
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Bring back weekly colections, these were forced upon us without a vote, now they ask us to vote to bring them back.Forget about the cost to the council tax payer, you don’t think about us when you switch of the street lights, without a vote.You’ve saved ten of thousands of pounds, so bring back weekly collections.
This council has no idea and respect for law abiding tax payers.Think about the majority rather than the minority!We pay for all these services.
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David, I don’t know where you get the idea that these changes were introduced without a vote. The decisions were made by our local councillors. We voted them in to make decisions on our behalf. They held a vote at a council meeting. Its called democracy. It may not be the democracy of the ancient Greeks but its what we’ve got. If you want to change this, get involved with local politics, stand for election and get yourself on the council. If you want a system where all voters decide on every council matter, we would spend a fortune whilst never get anything done.
BTW, I have two children and even when they were both in nappies, we rarely filled our general rubbish bin. We do however, put out a lot of recycling. The collection system is fine as it is and doesn’t need amending for a reactionary few.
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A weekly service for refuse collection is certainly not required at our premises and would be a waste of money. I consider that we could survive on collection intervals in excess of 2 weeks – upto 4 weeks on most occasions. If a weekly collection is to be introduced, it ought to be for recycled materials – the amounts of which mount up far quicker at our house – rather than refuse for landfill.
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is this the only pledge promise that they can come up with?
i can see no problem with keeping the collections as they are today. just think what it would be like on bin day with all of them out on the drive. surely there is a better use of the money (and where did it come from anyway!)
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i agree that the bin service is fine
the recycling though is a pain because they dont make it easy for you, and they dont collect much do they, nothign for juice cartons, yogurt pots etc, its not as good as where my nan lives in worcester
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What a waste of money just to appease some
selfish and greedy people who most likely
haven’t voted for this government.
I’m beginning to wish i hadn’t there no better
than the labour.
Our bin collections are fine as they are meanwhile they are cutting services to the old and vulnerable.
This man Pickles sounds like an idiot when he says “a weekly bin collection is a basic human right”. I say to Mr Pickles don’t waste my money on some thing i don’t want,if people put out more than a reasonable amount of waste.Then make them pay extra like any other service.
I thought this government were going to address money wasting.
What a let down these Pratt’s are becoming.
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I think the Council have a perfectly satisfactory arrangement in place in Bridgnorth. I hope they do not take up Mr Pickles half thought through proposal and make knee jerk changes. Are Bridgnorth residents complaining?
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What a complete waste of taxpayers money. We get people into the mindset to recycle then change it for no apparent reason? Judging by Mr Pickles appearance he may need his bin emptying every day, but in the meantime please stand-down from goverment and let decent let others put the money to better use.
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What a lot of joined up thinking from the Tories.
Pickles- emptying my bin weekly is the basic ‘uman right of every man in this country.
Theresa May- Let’s throw the Human Rights Act and legislation in the bin.
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I agree with the majority of people who have commented here – we simply don’t need weekly collections any more. It seems at odds with the drive to “reduce, reuse, recycle” message and even though I’m not a ‘raving greenie’, I think we all have a moral responsibility to think more carefully about what we throw away.
There are areas of the country that still don’t have wheelie bins, so I can understand the problems of storing smelly, fragile black backs for two weeks, so perhaps that £250m would be better spent on improving rubbish and recycling facilities instead of the very backwards step to weekly collections.
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Thom hasn’t heard anyone complaining about the bi-weekly bin collections? He should get out more.
Or has Thom forgotten the stench from the bi-weekly collections whenever there is a hot summer? And the increase in rats?
How short the memory of some people!
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remind me who invented the fortnightly collection method? oh yes it was CONSERVATIVE local councils in rural areas
I used to think it was a good idea for efficiency and admire the conservatives for being frugal with my money but if they say its rubbish we ok lets put up council tax and spend more public money may be we could even have a daily collection please and send the bill to the rate payers
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Not necessary. In my house, anything which is likely to decompose goes on the compost heap. 90% of everything else is recyclable and goes in the boxes provided. The other 10% goes in the black wheelie bin and can wait for weeks as far as I am concerned. Mr Pickles is either looking for Brownie points or reacting to lobbying by the waste management companies who are on lucrative contracts via the local authority and would like more work. Wonder how much they contributed to Tory party funds to get this?
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Looking at Pickles “waist” he doesnt produce much “waste” so what would he know
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Priorities for this govt – weekly bin collections, Broadband and mobile phone coverage.
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they are all BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS according to them who want to rip up the Human Rights Act on torture, etc
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Shows the priorities of this shower of a so called government
what do we want – navy jobs protected
when do we want it – NOW
do we give a fig about bins – NO
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There was a problem when the fortnightly bin collection began, because recycling had not been properly introduced. Now that recycling is fully under way, there must be few people that still have a problem. It is a shame that the Coalition have latched on to this – it goes to show that they are not in touch with the electorate. The money could be better spent elsewhere.
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WELL SAID THOM KENNEDY, I’D VOTE FOR YOU OVER THE CONDEMS ANY DAY!!
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frankly i think rubbish collections are not exactly a priority when our libraries are being closed is it
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[Or has Thom forgotten the stench from the bi-weekly collections whenever there is a hot summer? And the increase in rats? ]
There is no need for there to be a stench from people’s rubbish.
Food (should not be wasted, we always freeze leftovers for single dinners or to pass on to make a single dinner for my elderly father)
Chicken carcas often boiled for stock then wrapped in newspaper.
Fish skins fed to dog or wrapped in newspaper before putting in bin.
All non meat products composted.
Five adults but bin only half full at the most in one week.
I use a jeyes powder sprinkled on bagged rubbish if i think it is necessary.
We are fortunate to have a wheelie bin, some neighbours have to use bags in my road but they are usually smaller households.
Sorry if I sound a bit virtuous but we have to manage on very little money and take aways such as Mr Pickles refers to are rarely bought here.
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Erik pickles can eat my rubbish – i reckon he has more capacity to treat food waste than all the anaerobic digestors, compost bins and pig farms in the entire country and he produces heaps of manure and tonnes of hot air which can be used to grow tomatoes!
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Spend the money on tax cuts instead please
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Another story about tax payers money being wasted I am sick of Shropshire council and its incompetent management
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There are only two of us in the household and we don’t produce enough non-recyclable rubbish to need a weekly collection; however I can understand the frustration of a family of four or more people who are possibly having to take rubbish to the official tip themselves, mid-collection.
My main gripe is that in the summer the smell from two weeks of uncollected rubbish is particularly disagreeable, and there has been a very noticeable increase in the local fly population.
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