Time LCC ditched excuses and took responsibility for disposal

AN evening stroll at the weekend in the hills was rather spoilt by the sight of this (see photo on the right).

Councils - in our case Lancashire County Council - will tell us until they are blue in the face that changes to tips don’t directly link to an increase in fly-tipping.

The logic is that antisocial people will always be antisocial. And of course, that is true, but it’s also a handy excuse for the council to shirk its responsibility to help us dispose of waste in the proper way.

County Council leader Geoff Driver has urged people calling for tips to be re-opened to ‘think about the NHS.’

The NHS shouldn’t be used in this way.

The problem isn’t whether people want to support the NHS in its fight against Coronavirus - of course they do - it’s the county council’s refusal to help moderate the impact lockdown has on many lives.

More Greater Manchester councils have opened their tips again.

If they can get them to operate in a social distancing way, why can’t Lancashire?

Increasingly, it looks as though it’s because the political leadership at the county council doesn’t want to.

The authority seems to undervalue the important role tips play - deciding to close many of them, including Haslingden tip, two days a week to save money late last year.

Is disposing of waste an essential journey?

For many people, it will be. Fortnightly bin rounds are fine when you’re at work five days a week, but not enough when you’re at home 24/7. Rossendale Council’s binmen are doing a great job coping, but their lives would be a lot easier if LCC did its bit too.

You could argue DIY waste or garden rubbish isn’t essential either, but with so much talk of the impact lockdown has on mental health, shouldn’t the county council be praising people for keeping their homes in good shape?

As so often with our county council, its remoteness from local life, especially in Rossendale, comes through loud and clear in the tin-eared decision making process.

It’s time for our local, Conservative, county councillors, to make their voices heard.