Tory Brown Bin Mess!

12.31.00am GMT Thu 21st Jan 2010

Cllr Steve Jarvis

Several years ago the Tory-run North Herts District Council (NHDC) made the decision that residents' brown bins would not be emptied over Christmas. This decision was taken so that the emptying of black bins wasn't disrupted over the festive period - and at the time was probably sensible. However, the council have since changed the rules on what waste can be put into our brown bins. Nowadays the contents of brown bins not only includes traditional garden waste, but also food waste. It's fantastic that residents are doing their part for the environment and recycling more, but the council have yet again failed to react quickly enough to the change in residents' habits and the subsequent problem of rotting food in uncollected bins.

This problem was compounded with the disruption of all bin collections because of the recent snow. Whilst snow and ice obviously causes some problems we are sure that the Liberal Democrats are not alone in feeling that abandoning the service whenever there is snow is not necessary. The current obsession with "Health & Safety" seems largely responsible for this. If other parts of the world (including parts of Scotland) took this approach they would have no rubbish collections for months on end!

NHDC Liberal Democrat Group Leader, Steve Jarvis, is requesting that the Council reviews both its Christmas collection arrangements and its approach to severe weather, but we worry that neither is likely to result in any action very quickly.