On November 23rd, I submitted a petition to full Council. This petition contained 1901 signatures and called on Havering Council to retain weekly collections of both recycling and waste.
Below is the reply I have received.
There are a few things in the reply that stand out.
They, again, acknowledge that they don't actually know who'll get what collected when. Which makes it ridiculous that they are claiming this is a saving. The 'saving' they claim to have found will be made because everyone will apparently produce less waste.
Some homes, it appears, will remain on a weekly collection. Presumably they won't then produce less waste. But they haven't assessed which homes, so how can they have a £ figure for a saving?
Our borough is in a tight financial situation. If Labour and the Resident's Association are going to propose a 'saving', by cutting a vital service, then shouldn't they at least have the numbers worked out first? Their consultation is pretty definite on it saving money.
The petition continues to gain support, with nearly 2500 now having signed it. I will resubmit this at the next full Council. You can listen to / read my speech on the issue on the link below.
Please also consider signing the petition, if you haven't already.
The Reply
Dear Councillor Taylor,
We are in receipt of the enclosed petition concerning the proposed change to fortnightly refuse collections.
Wheeled bins and alternate weekly collections form are currently part of Havering’s budget consultation, and have been proposed as they are a proven method of reducing overall waste, thus saving money. Some form of alternate weekly waste collection is currently undertaken by 298 out of the 398 local authorities in England.
As with most boroughs, due to the varied nature of the housing stock there is no one size fits all solution. Normally assessments are undertaken to establish whether a property can accommodate containers on their private properties e.g. front driveways or gardens. A sack service is likely to remain for those properties that do not have space for containers, and as such these would not normally be considered suitable for an alternate weekly collection.
It should be noted that alternate weekly collections would be complemented by the introduction of a separate weekly food waste collection, which is a service that has been mandated under the Environment Act 2021. Whilst this would likely be introduced via New Burdens funding, there is a possibility that any funding would be reliant upon Havering being able to evidence that the other elements of its waste collection service are both efficient and effective in reducing household waste and encouraging recycling.
Yours sincerely
I am going to reduce my waste to accomodate the schedule.A;; kitchen waste will be placed in a pot with some water, a touch of bovril and, voila, soup for the day (i WILL add the odd leather shoe for a meaty flavour.
I’m afraid that you are only thinking about the financial savings in fortnightly bin collection. Reconsider your decision, please. This is going to affect all of us in a detrimental way. This is one decision we will all remember at The Ballot Box.