Rubbish! Fury as bin collection cut to once a month
ANGRY families have been told their bins are to be collected once every four weeks.
Conwy Council in north Wales hopes to save £400,000, despite a previous trial scheme that residents said led to people burning rubbish and an increase in rats.
Residents already face a five per cent hike in council tax and one councillor has called monthly bin collections “a step too far”.
Resident Angela Francis said the trial scheme “hasn't worked”.
She wrote on Twitter: “Streets filled with litter...bins spilled... rubbish is just lingering, polluting the environment, acting as a health risk and looks appalling.”
Another, called Enyaw, said it took north Wales “back to medieval times”, tweeting: “Residents not happy and rightly so as the council want to increase council tax by five per cent this year, while there has been an increase in stinking bins and fly-tipping!”
Janet Finch-Saunders, the Welsh Assembly Member for the area, said: “I am disgusted at this complete disregard for the interests of our residents in Conwy.
“Households struggling with three-weekly collections will be rightly concerned as to how they will manage next year.”
In December, Conwy Council's cabinet, a Tory and Independent coalition, decided to continue with its present collection every three weeks for its black, general waste wheelie bins – with a fourweek pilot in parts of the county – for the ‘foreseeable future'.
But in an about-turn on Tuesday, it voted to roll out the monthly collections by the end of 2019 to make £400,000 annual savings.
It insists the year-long trial in 10,900 properties was a success – in spite of reports of a rise in vermin and people burning rubbish.
Recycling increased by 14 per cent and black bin waste fell by 31 per cent, saving 1,040 tons from landfill, the council said.
However, it acknowledged that some people were having problems with monthly collections, the first to be introduced in England and Wales. It said new measures had been proposed including a second bin for larger families, extra collections over Christmas and expanding the nappy service.
Labour councillor Chris Hughes said: “It's a step too far. People will feel like they are being asked to pay more and more, while getting less and less services.”
But council leader Gareth Jones said: “Environmental and sustainability needs are changing political and economic policies.
'The message I want to present is that we accelerate our drive towards increasing recycling and reducing residual waste.”