The front page of 'The Daily Telegraph' today has the headline, 'Councils can now refuse to empty your bin.' It is referring to an amendment added quietly to the Environmental Protection Act by the government.
Basically, if you don't put your bin out 'properly', put it out too early or don't stick to some new rules foisted on you, such as not recycling enough waste, your bin will not be emptied. It gives each local authority carte blanche to do what they feel.
Please note, this amendment in to an environmental bill, so the government will have you believe it is all in the interests of being 'green' and improving the environmental health of the country. How not emptying your bin and leaving rubbish for longer than is necessary can be good for public health is beyond me. Although it will be good for the rat population; they will think all their Christmases have come at once.
All any government can do is encourage us to think about the environment. You are not going to get the public on your side by waving a big stick. If councils do start refusing to empty bins for the flimsiest of reasons, the environment will suffer through the increase in fly-tipping, which is also very costly for local authorities to clear up.
What backbench Labour MPs who have slender majorities are thinking is not difficult to guess. They must feel the government is deliberately working against them with one unpopular measure after another.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Councils to get the right not to empty your bin
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6 comments:
The private sector will step and collect your rubbish for a small fee...
Actually this is what happens here BUT we don't pay Council Tax or whatever they are callig Rates these days.
Aileni: I would like to see the private sector deal with rubbish collection. Bins not emptied, no payment; as simple as that. Whether we would get a reduction in council tax in another matter.
Ah, the wonderful private sector with its sorry track record of dirty hospital wards and unmarked SAT papers. Bins not emptied, no payment, next company charges more to clear up the mess. In order to maximise profits, private companies will do the minimum within the terms of the contract. Extra work on top is the whipped cream on the cake.
Dirty hospital wards and unmarked SAT papers, only because government allows it to happen. In the US - where hospitals have to genuinely compete with one another - dirty wards mean you go out of business.
If the Department for Schools - or whatever it is called these days - had been on the ball, the SATs results delay would not have happened.
Anyone who has put in a bid for a government contract knows that you have to bid as low as you can. The government is not interested in quality at all. It simply boils down to pound notes. The government wastes billions of pounds every year, but when it comes to basics, like hospital cleanliness, it is not interested.
I would like to see a system where people who produce less rubbish get rewarded with lower Council rates! My family produces so little we only put the bin out once a month or so, and even then it is often not full. Yet we still pay the same rubbish removal rates as the neighbours whose bins are overflowing every week.
Chervil: The three of us usually fill our bin every week. We fill our paper bin that is collected every month and usually have a box full of glass and jars for recycling every two weeks. Today we are going to the tip to get rid of some cardboard for recycling as this is not collected by the council.
As you can see, we do our bit. So what about a rebate for us who recycle more than the average family? Fat chance - as all the government is interested in is beating us with sticks, rather than offering carrots.
Finally, if the council tries for any reason not to empty my bin because I have not put it in the correct position or something else trivial like that, there will be hell to pay.
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