Barnet Labour condemn Tory bin collection cuts
Labour councillors are opposing plans by Barnet’s Conservatives to stop collecting garden waste for 3 months of the year and to stop the collection of food waste entirely.
The plans, which will be discussed at the Environment committee meeting on 5 June, also include scrapping all the ‘recycling bring bank’ sites which residents without access to doorstep recycling are able to use and a reorganisation of bin collection routes which will see collection days change for most residents.
The Council’s own report admits that the cuts to garden and food waste collections are driven by the need to make financial savings and take no account of the negative impact on the environment.
When the food waste collection was introduced, the Council’s own publicity said: “Disposing of food waste in your refuse bin is costly and damaging to the environment as it produces harmful gases, which contribute to climate change. By separating your food waste and not putting it in your refuse bin, we can reduce refuse disposal costs and minimise Barnet’s impact on the environment.”
The plan to stop garden waste collections for 3 months during the winter will inconvenience residents and is likely to lead to huge backlogs when collections resume.
All of the proposed changes are going to make it more difficult to reach the target for 50% of all waste to be recycled.
Labour’s environment spokesperson, Cllr Alan Schneiderman said: “Not even a month after the election, Barnet Tories are already starting to cut bin collections despite their election promises. It’s quite clear that the plan to cut green waste collections and scrap food collections entirely was drawn up before the election but kept secret until now.
“These plans are bad news for residents and the environment and Labour councillors will be opposing them. How long before the three month suspension of garden waste collections becomes permanent and how long before other bin collections are affected?”
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