At today’s (4th March) meeting of Stirling Council the Stirling Conservative group has lodged the above motion requesting that the council reverses the proposed and unwanted changes to waste, and hence listen to the people of Stirling Council who have been vocal in their opposition to such changes.
As reminder the proposals from the SNP & Labour administration include:
The £35 Charge for Garden Waste
Stirling Council will introduce a charge for garden waste from April 1st. Residents who pay the fee will have a sticker to put on their brown bin to show that their garden waste can be collected. Residents without the sticker will still be able to put food waste in the brown bin. A 100% concession for council tax benefit recipients and those with a registered mental impairment has been agreed.
The Reduction in the frequency of waste collection from 2 weekly to 4 weekly
Stirling Council will reduce the frequency of collection of the grey residual waste bin from every 4 weeks to every 2 weeks. Larger bins are available for larger families and additional E-Bin waste collection is available for those who generate non hazardous medical waste and nappies.
And the lack of a community consultation before announcing these plans
o There was no consultation on the options that were put before members in June. No formal or informal consultation had taken place on details of the proposed scheme
o A consultation would have revealed the strength of public opinion on this change
o Consultation would have also revealed many flaws with the proposals, especially for medical waste, large families, more vulnerable people and concessionary schemes.
o The community consultation that is often cited as part of the decision making contained no proposals and showed that people liked the current frequency of collection, although wanted to see the green bin more frequently emptied and the blue bin less frequently collected.
o The lack of a community consultation has seriously dented Stirling Council’s reputation and made it look like we do not listen to public opinion
We are therefore urging:
Changes to Waste Collection Service
1. Council notes that its decision on the 30th June to reduce the frequency of waste collection has had a significant adverse public response.
2. Council further notes that many people in Stirling are unhappy with the introduction of a charge for garden waste collection.
3. Council resolves to cancel the changes to waste collection frequency for both grey (residual) and blue (recyclable plastics and cans) waste and continue with fortnightly collection.
4. Council also resolves to levy no charge for garden waste collection.
5. Council requests that waste services bring forward proposals to take advantage of efficiencies that can be made from the roll out of the comb collection method bins (the new brown and grey bins that are being rolled out to residents).
6. Council apologises to the people of Stirling for making this unnecessary and unwelcome change without any form of consultation.
Alastair Majury Chartered MCSI, is also a director of Majury Change Management Ltd is a highly experienced Senior Business Analyst / Data Scientist with a proven track record of success planning, developing, implementing and delivering migrations, organisational change, regulatory, legislative, and process improvements for global financial organisations, covering Retail Banking, Investment Banking, Wealth Management, and Life & Pensions.