Garden Waste 1 – Direct Action from Eric

Garden Waste 1 – Direct Action from Eric

by | Jun 22, 2008 | News | 7 comments

The unpopular green garden waste collection charge has been covered at length in the local newspapers. In eight days, a group of councillors are meeting along with officers to review the scheme. My Conservative colleagues will continue to oppose the £35 charge.

In the meantime, Eric extended a helping hand to an 80 year old resident who could not afford to buy a bag and was physically unable to take the garden waste to the dump. The resident from Oxford Road contacted Eric in desperation. He visited her the next day and resolved to take the bag himself in the back of his car. After 20 minutes queuing at the Kimpton, he was finally able to get rid of the cuttings.

Eric said, “The LibDem Council really don’t care about who are hit by this charge, like the elderly widow in my ward. As a Conservative I believe minimising waste is a priority but this charge really is hitting vulnerable people hard. I support the call for an urgent rethink on this policy.”

He concluded, “The dump was chock-a-block with cars waiting to get into the dump. If it was that bad on a Tuesday morning, I shudder to think what it was like over the weekend.”

Garden Waste 1 – Direct Action from Eric

It’s The Car Or Nothing

by | Jun 4, 2008 | News | 2 comments

A story in the Sutton Guardian this week illustrates everything that is wrong with the green garden waste scheme as it is currently constituted.

Mr Burton from North Cheam doesn’t have a car and so walked about a mile pushing his wheelbarrow filled with green garden waste to the dump in Kimpton Road. He queued up with the cars, showed his council tax bill to prove that he was a resident and was turned away because it was too dangerous not being in a car.
He told the Guardian “As a non-car user, I decided to cart my rubbish along in my garden wheelbarrow, but was met by a surly jobsworth, who said it was against procedures. Living in supposedly one of the most environmentally-friendly boroughs in London, I find this set-up is a total farce.”
I’ll write again on the garden waste as a whole but this is just one of a number of issues that have not been addressed before implementing this scheme. Meanwhile a centre at Beddington Lane has been opened for residents to take their garden waste for composting at a cost of some £5000 per week. Make sure that you are up to date with all of the changes by going to the Council website .