by Paul Scully | Jul 27, 2008 | News |
I’ll write separately about last week’s full council meeting where Colin Hall survived my call for his resignation via a no-confidence motion. Although he has now gone away for four weeks, the fallout from the unpopular £35 green garden waste charge continues.
The Council bought 38,000 bags. However as of the 24th, only 4,466 had been sold to 3,864 households. That’s a lot of little jute bags hanging around in store. Some people have told me that they bought one reluctantly feeling that they had no choice. Others, like the constituent mentioned in the video, simply cannot or will not buy the bags. Tim Crowley got rid of some bags of rubbish for one of his constituents. She had four composters in her garden so she cannot be accused of failing to do her bit.
We know that the policy will change in September following a ‘consultation’. The retreat is being carefully stage-managed throughout six weeks of summer when people are doing a lot of gardening.
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by Paul Scully | Jul 16, 2008 | News |
Last week, the Lead Councillor for the Environment told us all via the Sutton Guardian that Sutton had the fourth lowest fly-tipping problem in London but fly-tippers were punished most severely.
On the day of publication of that issue, Cllr Tim Crowley inspected this pile of garden waste that a resident had seen dumped by a vehicle bearing the Council tree logo next to Corrigan Rec in the Clockhouse Estate. On reporting the fact that on at least two succesive Thursdays this pile had been added to, he was told variously that it was due to an attempt to save petrol and that it should not have happened and an investigation would be started. It was collected on Sunday by 7 men, 1 tractor and 2 pick-ups.
Despite this, the Lead Councillor for the Environment calmly explained to a public meeting on Wednesday that included Clockhouse residents that it was normal practice to dump the cuttings from Corrigan Rec and then pick it up the next day. This statement came shortly after he responded to a question from Clockhouse residents asking him how they should deal with green garden waste as there was no collection point within several miles of the Estate, by telling them to drive to Kimpton Road (17 mile round trip) or Beddington Lane (11.8 mile round trip).
So… Councillor tells people that they will be in real trouble if they fly-tip whilst the service that he is responsible for is fly-tipping; councillor tells Clockhouse residents to travel across South London to get rid of their rubbish, whilst council waste is tipped in a nearby field. Imagine what your neighbour would say if you chucked your waste across the fence. Have a look at what the Council Leader of Banstead and Reigate found out that the field near Hatch Lane was in fact, not in the Borough of Sutton at all.
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by Paul Scully | Jul 12, 2008 | News |
…Quite literally. I spoke to a Sutton resident this morning who clipped the glass recycling bin in her green wheelie bin. On collection day, the green wheelie bin was emptied into the back of the truck along with the blue bin.
How many of these bins have been recycled themselves? Another example of the system becoming more complicated without adequate communication or provision?
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by Paul Scully | Jul 10, 2008 | News |
I sometimes get the feeling that Sutton Council works despite councillors rather than because of them. The 3,500 people that work for the local authority deserve credit for their achievments. Sutton had a reputation for environmental initiatives. The LibDems scored a few hits in this regard despite some failures such as the £250k gas powered dustcarts that didn’t work and the photo of dustmen emptying brown and green wheelie bins into the same lorry, which undermined their appeal to get people to do their bit. The introduction of fortnightly collections of the brown bins was perhaps the low tide mark that the Council needed to judge its actions by.
I’m afraid the water is well out at the moment following the introduction of the unpopular £35 per bag green garden waste. Conservatives working on the overall waste minimisation strategy warned that the charge was unjustified and required clear communication with residents if it was to be taken up. It is only now, five months after the Executive agreed to the charge that they are consulting with residents. Residents have been left with the idea at various times that the £35 charge was for as many bags as required, that the Conservatives agreed with the policy and that paying the charge would allow them to throw away as much as before until they saw the tiny green jute bags. 5000 bags have been bought to date despite the Council obtaining 38,000 bags in the expectation of them flying off the shelves. A second amenity point has had to be opened on the weekend in Beddington Lane to take the pressure of the dump at Kimpton Road, costing £5,000 per week. Despite this move, residents still face queues of up to an hour at the Kimpton dump.
The Council have had the Audit Commission in for the last fortnight or so, going through everything with a fine toothcomb for what is known as the corporate assessment. Every controversial decision has been kicked into touch until September when the inspectors will have written up their report, so we end up in the position of a consultation with a limited number of residents that will last the summer, when people need the collection service most.
We have reached the point when I hope that the Lead Councillor for the Environment, e-government and Efficiency will pass on the reins of power to someone else who can restore public confidence in this service. I have written about problems with parking services and the introduction of free laptops for councillors both of which come under his remit but it is the unpopular £35 charge and in particular the way in which it has been handled which brings me to propose a vote of no confidence at the next Council meeting on 21st July. On a number of occasions, officers have been made scapegoats and paid with their livelihoods. I hope in this instance, the person in charge of the policy takes responsibility and makes a principled resignation.
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by Paul Scully | Jul 4, 2008 | News |
Last month Carshalton & Wallington MP, Tom Brake and his colleagues waved in a European Directive which tackled unfair trading. One of the proscribed activities was the selective quoting of reviews for theatre advertising. A recent Guys and Dolls revival was described as ‘hilarious’ despite the whole quote explaining that ‘the original fifties musical was hilarious whereas the new production falls somewhat flat’.
The theatre owner would face jail if he tried that now. No such penalty for Tom Brake after his own distortion of the facts. He has been caught out for the second time by local residents trying to spin his colleagues out of the mess that they are in over the unpopular £35 green garden waste charge.
He has written to a constituent in response to a complaint about the charge, claiming that the Conservatives were in favour of the charge and ascribing Conservative spokesman, John Kennedy with the quote “The environmental charges that now face us go beyond party politics. Both main political parties have, for the first time, worked jointly on a borough policy.” and added “The new strategy gives us a framework for reducing the impact of the waste we produce at home.”
I don’t remember if this was word for word accurate. The sentiment is correct. We have worked together to formulate a waste minimisation strategy that will reduce the amount that goes to landfill. However there have been two areas that we have consistently disagreed with the LibDems on. The unpopular £35 is one. We are also concerned about the role of the waste awareness officers that have been recruited as we are opposed to any suggestion of the introduction of ‘bin police.’ Cllr Kennedy has made this clear to the Council Executive and even to Tom Brake himself in a letter dated 17th May. Despite this, Tom Brake is persisting on encouraging the contrary view in a letter to another constituent dated 26th June.
I’m surprised that he seeks to quote a Conservative councillor to give him credibility rather than his own spokesman. I am less surprised that he has consistently failed to offer a view on the charge himself. Still if that is how he sees fit to conduct himself in his last two years as an MP he is unlikely to be surprised at the verdict given via the ballot box.
