Green waste plan "will degrade service"

Reaction is still coming to yesterday’s special report, and we will run it tomorrow.
Meanwhile, back to the day to day business.
Criticism continues to mount over the way the Conservatives are handling Boston’s affairs since they took the helm on 5th May.
They made few enough promises at the times, and now even the things they are delivering are claimed to have been watered down.
The decision to run a pilot green waste collection scheme has been dismissed as a mere “publicity stunt” - and there are fears that it may well confuse matters rather than help ease a problem – as the garden waste will be collected in the current blue recycling wheelie bins.
One critic is Darron Abbott, a Conservative candidate for Boston’s South Ward at the elections.
“Having read the proposals for the green waste collection, I am disappointed,” he said. “This is not what I was expecting. During the election campaign we were led to believe every household would have a new bin that would be used for green waste - at no point was it suggested that the recycling service would be degraded, as this is what I believe the new scheme does.
“It has taken a long time to get people educated as to what to put in the blue bin. Asking people now to put these items in blue plastic bags will in my opinion set this back. We fill our blue bin most fortnights; we will now have a pile of blue bags containing soggy paper and cardboard along with glass. What happens when one of these bags splits whilst loading on to the bin lorry? Are the bin men going to have time to pick up the paper and broken glass?
“People will just revert back to putting these items in the green bin.
“Once again the council have come up with a half baked idea, rather than being brave. “If it is down to cost, I for one would be willing to pay the £20 for another bin.”
It’s a good point.
Back in February 2009 that the council announced tough penalties for people who contaminated their blue bins with dog waste, food waste, dirty nappies or black bags.
First time around the bin's owners would get a letter reminding them of what they could and couldn’t dump. If they did it again a sterner warning letter was being sent out, and if the bin was contaminated for a third time the householders would be fined £100. And if that didn’t stop them they would be taken to court.
At the time, Councillor Richard Dungworth, who was the cabinet member for recycling, said: "Recycling rules can be confusing …”
We wonder what he would have to say now …
The council has said it was not looking to impose fines during the pilot green waste collection – but says that rubbish placed in the wrong bin or bag may not be collected.
But the newspaper advert promoting the scheme instructs householders “Landfill waste to continue to be put into the green bin” – which we are sure will be a recipe for confusion.
Meanwhile, another contributor – who wishes to remain anonymous - has identified two other election issues where he feels that the Tories have let voters down.
“I am interested, and disappointed, to read recently within your blog of the apparent ease with which the Conservatives are prepared to throw away the content of their pre-election literature.
“I have spoken on two particular issues with a member of this Conservative administration.
“The following is a précis of the discussion.
“1 - Buses through Strait Bargate. ‘Can't do anything about them mate; still got nearly two years of contract to run. No, can't even try to negotiate any element of it in the interest of saving money. Besides, I'm telling you that I have spoken to the people on the buses and they are in favour of buses going through Strait Bargate’ (Do chocoholics dislike Cadburys?)
“2 - Market Place scheme. ‘Sorry, too late to try to revisit or tweak; those 70 parking spaces are going and that's that!’
“And so will £450,000 of our money on a scheme whose net benefit to the borough, and in particular those stalwart and respected traders within the Market Place area who rely on handy parking to attract their customers, is less than guaranteed.

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