U-TURN? THAT'S RUBBISH! (From Warrington Guardian)

U-TURN? THAT'S RUBBISH!

VALE Royal Borough Council's waste and recycling supremo has dismissed the possibility of bringing back a weekly household waste collection.

But Clr Malcolm Gaskill's statement came within days of another Liberal Democrat councillor admitting that recycling bosses might have to consider a U-turn on fortnightly collections in the future.

Speaking at an environmental meeting at Wyvern House, Clr Des Worthington criticised the commitment of opposition Labour councillors to the scheme before admitting that the council might have to consider 'an additional collection' of household rubbish. But Clr Gaskill said this would not be possible as missing Government recycling targets could cost Vale Royal a whopping £120,000 a day.

He said: "There's no U-turn towards a weekly collection.

"Tell me how we can do a U-turn on this and why we would want to?"

He added: "I will give you three reasons why we should not go to a weekly collection.

"The first reason is that it would add 17 per cent to the Council Tax immediately - this would be £1million a year.

"Another reason for not emptying the bins every week is psychological.

"If people have half-empty bins on their driveway then they will not even think about recycling.

"The final reason is that we need to hit the targets the Government has set us or we will be charged £120,000 per day. It's the law and we must obey the law."

Clr Gaskill also attacked the record of Vale Royal's previous Labour-controlled administration when he spoke at a press conference last week.

He said: "I expect the opposition to object because that is their job but they have had their fun now.

"This is the same scheme the previous administration was going to bring in in 1994 and suddenly it's a bad scheme.

"This is how much the opposition are concerned about recycling: when we held roadshows around Vale Royal, Clr Brian Lloyd couldn't even be bothered coming to the one in Frodsham.

"He is not against recycling, he just doesn't know how to do it. If hehas a better scheme, then let's hear it."

But Labour councillor Pam Booher said: "From now on I'm putting every complaint I get about recycling in writing to the chief executive...and there's been a lot of them.

"People are paying a lot of Council Tax and to be honest, some of the streets look absolutely awful.

"The Labour group is not against recycling - we were the ones that introduced it with Local Agenda 21 - but we did it in stages.

"And to collect residual waste every fortnight is disgraceful."