Frank Keegan, ward councillor for Alderley Edge, has called on Cheshire East to urgently reconsider their decision to bin the green waste collection service for 4 months, starting in mid-November.
Cllr Keegan wrote to David Topping, Cheshire East Council Cabinet member in charge of the environment, requesting that the service be extended by three weeks to enable all the fallen leaves to be collected.
He said "In common with many of my constituents, the leaves were and are rigidly hanging on to the trees. Besides which, even if they were all down, I would need significantly more than one wheelie bin to remove my leaves. The proposed timetable for withdrawing the green waste service is totally out of sync with the weather patterns.
"I now have only the 8 November left as a collection date. Can you, as a matter of urgency, announce that the season will be extended to actually allow the leaves to be taken away by CEC? In my view that extends into December and 6 December means I would have 3 more collections to remove the leaves. (i.e. 8, 22 Nov and 6 Dec)."
Cheshire East Council announced last month that in order to save money there will be no garden waste collections between 18th November 2013 and 14th March 2014. The changes outlined will save the authority more than £1m over the next four years.
During this period residents will need to compost their garden waste at home or take it to the local recycling centre in Knutsford - where permits may be required for large vehicles or trailers.
Councillor David Topping, Cheshire East Council Cabinet member in charge of the environment, responded "I can not agree that the timetable is out of synch for the majority of residents in Cheshire east. Our records indicate that mid-November is when the wagons start to return with smaller collections.
"As you are aware, we have already sent out letters to residents and placed stickers on bins. We've also issued press releases and placed information onto the Council's website. Operationally, we have also made arrangements to off-hire a number of vehicles that we will not need and have re-allocated staffing resources to cover rounds that would normally be covered by agency staff.
"As you can imagine, there are considerable savings expected from this; £120,000 in the first year and up to £300,000 in subsequent years. Sending out vehicles to collect small amounts of green waste is not good value for money for the council tax payers, not to mention the carbon footprint left by the wagons.
"We have now had negotiations with our contractor so they are geared up for not accepting waste during the extended suspension period and we have also agreed a contract extension with this included.
"Alternative arrangements such as composting, storing the green waste in the bins until collections resume or taking it to the household waste collection centres have been suggested to residents. The decision is calculated to have the minimum impact on the smallest number of residents.
"The bottom line is that we are fully committed and some way down the line so I don't believe we could re-schedule the suspension now."
Cllr Keegan has now requested a breakdown of the green waste collections, upon which CEC has based their decision to cut the service from 18th November.
He wrote "I don't believe that you have considered areas like Alderley Edge, since you record that wagons start to return with smaller collections, and in my opinion you could thus have tailored the service to those areas which genuinely have little or no returns. My constituents pay the top end of Council Tax per household and it is not acceptable just to take the lazy way out and cut all services. A great number of my constituents will be penalised."
Cheshire East Council has announced that they cannot take excess waste on the last scheduled collection date of 2013 and they will not be offering residents a council tax reduction.
A spokesperson for Cheshire East said "The Council is committed to offering a free garden waste service. These changes are needed so that we can continue to deliver this service without an additional charge. The Garden Waste collection service is not a statutory service which the Council is obliged to offer."
CEC has also confirmed that those residents who purchased an additional garden waste bin will not be getting a refund because they "were advised that the garden waste suspension period was under review. Terms and conditions issued to all residents with additional garden waste bins did feature the following section; Suspension of the service during the winter period has been taken into account and as such no refunds in relation to the suspension will be offered. Suspending the garden waste collection service is a regular occurrence in Cheshire East and is common practice amongst other local authorities who are all faced with similar financial pressures".
Comments
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Why should we have to go to the tip with garden waste when there still should be a collection till December. It's also not a 'free' service, we pay a hefty council tax bill.
We all the know the answer to this...
We are not even into November and yet many pavements around Wilmslow are unsafe for pedestrians, leaves, overgrown trees, overgrown hedges, etc. In some areas including on Alderley Road, you need to walk in the road because the pavement is blocked or branches overhang too low. The council can't even manage to provide a safe passage for pedestrians. Are they waiting for some personal injury claims instead?
I compost what I can and still fill a compacted green bin and one of Henshaw's blue ones, so let's have a collection in late November and December and if it costs CEC extra it can come from the bottomless bonus pot.
How many of them have a gardener that comes round every week and takes away their waste? Those would not have a clue about the amount generated.
When i was a full time gardener, mainly in Alderley and Bramhall we were still mowing in December most years. All the main work was done over the winter months ready to create lovely gardens the following Spring. Gardeners don't generally pack up for 4 months although CEC seem to think so!!
What they suggest,Take your rubbish to the local tip!
Alderley does not have a local tip!
Macc tip 16 mile round trip.
Knutsford tip 12 mile round trip.
Nothing local about that!!
What they have not taken into account is that we are paying for a service and we are not getting it.
We are then being told (not asked) to take our own rubbish to the tip at our own expense, plus there may be a charge if you go in a van or with a trailer.
Seems we are paying for a so called service twice (at least)
Compost, some people don't have the room or want to.That's why they are happy to pay for the service as and when they get it.
Rant over.