Anger over bins axe
Thursday 30th April 2009, 1:10PM BST.
Angry residents have hit out at council plans to scrap weekly refuse collections in favour of fortnightly collections in a bid to meet new recycling targets.
Powys County Council yesterday revealed plans to make a huge increase in doorstep recycling collections, but the new move will also include fortnightly wheeled bin collections for non-recyclable materials.
The move has sparked anger among residents, who say they fear they will have too much rubbish to store safely and fear it will attract rats and other animals.
Louise Herbert, of Bron y Buckley, Welshpool, said she was concerned cats would be able to get to her rubbish.
She said: “I am also not too happy with the idea of wheeled bins because I live on a high hill and I haven’t got the strength to push a heavy bin up and down the hill, so how are the elderly people going to cope?”
Linda Owen, of Owen’s Butchers, Berriew Street, Welshpool, said: “I have a large family which can easy go through four or five big bags of rubbish a week and I am concerned it will be too much to fit in.”
Recyclable goods such as cans, plastic bottles and bags, food waste, paper, textiles and card will be collected on a weekly basis, but the new wheeled bins for general waste will be collected every fortnight.
The council said it will be consulting members of the public on the plans with a series of information points throughout the county.
Stops include Welshpool Corn Exchange on June 12, The Old Market Hall in Llanidloes on June 15 and Newtown Bear Lanes Shopping Centre on June 30.
John Evans, council spokesman, said: “We are in talks about assisted schemes to help the elderly or disabled who cannot manage with wheeled bins to manage their waste.”
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so now they are just like most other places in the uk having a fornightly collection so why the need to moan – if protesting didnt stop the rest of the towns/citys moving to fornightly collections what good will it do! Its a way of life that people need to get used to! myself and friends all moaned when it changed in shrewsbury, but that was down to laziness of having to sort our own rubbish – now it doesnt even bother us!
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I have fortnightly collections in Bridgnorth, people are making a huge fuss about nothing. As long as bags are tied so nothing spills out, is stored in the wheelie bins, the lids kept shut, and recycle they have nothing to worry about. It’s easy wheeling out a wheelie bin, than dragging out bin bags that get chewed through by foxes and cats.
Stop moaning and deal with it!
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what anger, they are getting a load of new services for recycling, they should be happy, i dont think its a problem, it works for us in dorrington
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Powys may be – literally – a pretty ‘rubbish’ council these days in the way it has cut services and transferred responsibilities for others to town councils etc.
But I’m surprised they’re so late coming to the recycling party – all local authorities are having to introduce such schemes. And rightly so. It’s when they start trying to use rubbish as a means of squeezing extra money out of you (in ‘fines’ or bin taxes) that I would object.
But wait! Already schemes like this are leading to recruitment of yet more ‘non-jobs’. I’ve just seen a Powys CC job advertised:
Communications and Marketing Officer (Waste) -
salary £24,402 to £28,353. “This is a leading role communicating with local communities in Powys. If you have 3 years in PR, marketing, journalism or a relavant field with a committment to the environment and recycling we want to hear from you”.
Its a 2 year fixed term appointment – and whats the betting that this is yet another non-job which will remain on the payroll (8,000 don’t forget) in Powys for ever more?
THIS is what people should be protesting against, and its this cavalier attitude with our money that should be reigned in. They need a PR expert to ‘communicate’ with council tax payers about recycling? They’ve already GOT a PR department.
How patronising can you get eh? And of course, its front line staff and services that will eventually be axed to keep non-jobs like this one on the council books…..
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It’s nice to see the Star is still good at scare mongering. Food waste attracts animals and that is still being collected weekly so no extra risk. Even waste paper, like well read Shropshire Stars can be taken away weekly. More weekly collections, more recycling means less landfill and less tax. Get real.
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this is a disgrace, this is pandering to the EU and their recycling diktats, but dont worry when we get back in we will bring back weekly collections of rubbish even for the welsh, our chairman Erik pickles has promised a manifesto commitment to weekly bin day across all of the UK so two fingers up to socialists in the EU and their rubbish ideas – bring back weekly bin day, anything else is unhygenic and making people do as their told with rubbish is socialist
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Do as your Council tell you . Stop deluding yourself and thinking your requirements count.
You are there to serve them NOT the other way round. That went out with steam.
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when will people realise recycling is nothing short of propaganda by this government to drag and squeeze every last penny out of us fortnightly collections is a CUT in services why else do they send it all to land fill anyway land fills dont destroy the climate like your told especialy when we can use the methane discharge to run generators
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I live in north derbyshire and we have had fortnightly collections for 8 months. No probnlem with it providing a little time is spent seperating recycleable items from non recycleable. No bad idea really as it makes people recycle in a roundabout way and is good for the envoiroment. Sorry to say but get on with it and recycle more.
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it will be fine, stop exagerating the problem
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All the best performing councils in the UK for recycling do fortnightly collections of rubbish, the sad fact is its the only way to make some people recycle, if you make something free and the point of use and dont ration it, it will just be abused, we need to limit peoples wastefulness and one way to do that is to collect less often, i think smaller rubbish bins would be a good idea too, im sure the proof will be in the pudding, when powys and wales starts recycling more in response to this decision it will be great for the environment and i salute the council for being bold and showing leadership on this issue, well done, you will i guarentee see your reward in lower landfill disposal and associated costs and environmental impacts
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ITS A DISGRACE – WE PAY FOR MORE – WE DESERVE MORE – COUNCIL TAX IS A RIP OFF
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so will i pay half as much council tax then i hope?
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Well said, John Aymes.
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fortnightly collections boosts recycling FACT
over half the councils in britain do it and its more cost effective and more environmentally friendly, less vehicle movements and less need for landfill or polluting incinerators
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who cares? get over it
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its only a bin! take it to the tip if you cant cope!
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A vote for conservatives means a vote for weekly collections – eric pickles and david cameron have promised to reinstate weekly collections when we get back in, so eat that Powys council
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Tory boy – nothing ever cmes for free – if the conservatives are promising weekly colections there is a price to be paid somewhere, indirect or direct, transparent or hidden, it’ll be there. My bet is they will go to pay as you throw, with free collection of recyclables.
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Expanding recycling and moving towards ‘zero waste’ targets will create MORE JOBS than incineration.
We should follow the lead of the fore-sighted Welsh.
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doesnt bother me
cant cope with your rubbish !???!
err, ive got an idea
try recycling some of it instead!
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its fine if you just recycle as much as possible then there is virtually no rubbish left over to throw away any how
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