Row over bins is rumbling on (From Malvern Gazette)

Row over bins is rumbling on

10:30am Tuesday 12th February 2013 in News By Tarik Al Rasheed

A ROW over the introduction of controversial wheelie bins in Malvern is rolling on.

Malvern Hills District Council is pressing ahead with plans to give residents green plastic bins for their recycling, which will be emptied every fortnight.

The existing weekly black bag collection for general refuse will be unchanged.

But one member of the controlling Tory party says the change has been pushed through without the authorisation of councillors.

Coun Tony Warburton says councillors only agreed to pursue £1.67 million government funding for waste collection during a vote last year, and they should have been consulted before any changes were implemented.

But council leader David Hughes says the council’s intentions were “explicit”

and that the only talk of it returning for further discussion was if the government funding bid had failed.

Coun Warburton has also rubbished suggestions by MHDC’s head of community services Ivor Pumfrey that the consequence of not switching to wheelie bins for recycling would spell the end of weekly black bag collections for general waste.

He said: “I want to say categorically that no such suggestion has ever been made nor has the possibility ever been discussed by councillors.

If expenditure needed to be cut it would be they who would decide what and where, not employees.

“If this council had to make significant expenditure reductions, there would be a host of cuts made before waste collection was in any way restricted.”

However, Mr Pumfrey told your Malvern Gazette that failing to introduce wheelie bins would “inevitably” have meant a switch to fortnightly general refuse collections as well as potentially causing cuts to other services.

He added that public consultation had shown the weekly black bag collection was the thing that residents valued most highly.

Coun Warburton is hoping to raise the issue of wheelie bins at the next full council meeting on Tuesday, February 19.

He will be submitting a motion calling for the full terms of the government grant to be publicised and asking that councillors are provided with a detailed, costed plan of the wheelie bin scheme.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Residents have this week received letters explaining what their recycling arrangements will be once the new system begins in May.

The vast majority are being told that they will receive a wheelie bin – either full or compact size – while a small percentage in hard-to-reach areas will continue to have recycling collected every week in cherry-coloured sacks.