High price to pay for bins ‘victory’

DEAR Editor, It is very heartening to read that the “bin strike” has been resolved and that collections will resume in order to clear the horrendous backlog of untreated waste that has clogged the streets for over six months.

Howard Beckett, Unite’s assistant general secretary, calls the agreement “a victory for common sense”. Some victory!

Surely Mr Beckett must realise that there will be a cost to this agreement to keep workers in work and to refuse flexible working practices?

This cost (£6.6 million) will have to be found by fierce cuts to provision for people who have a genuine need for support – not because they want another tattoo or a mobile phone upgrade.

Who will it affect? Children, awaiting treatment in local hospitals; the elderly, reliant on help from social services; the disabled, dependent on local community help to maintain a lifestyle that allows for as normal an approach to life as is possible; those desperately in need of support for mental health issues; young and elderly who require specialised attention for a wide variety of concerns such as dialysis, adapted transport, prosthetic limbs, counselling for PTS sufferers.

These and many more provisions will need to be funded through a reduced annual budget.

Expenditure must be paid for by cuts in