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Wokingham Lib Dems have criticised the removal of a £2 million provision to improve recycling in the town
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Recycling plan 'scrapped by council'

By Victoria Smith
April 30, 2012

Wokingham Lib Dems criticised the council last week for “abandoning” plans to improve and extend recycling in the borough.

A £2 million fund for a “recycling improvement plan” was put forward in the council’s medium term financial plan in 2011/12 under the capital vision over 10 years.

This has now been deleted in the most recent budget.

The Lib Dems say with an underpinning principle in the council’s new vision to improve recycling, it does not make sense to scrap plans to achieve this.

The Lib Dems are calling for recycling to be made easier and for residents to be encouraged to recycle more.

The current recycling scheme is limited in the items that can be collected, with items such as Tetra Paks not collected from homes.

The group says by abandoning plans for new initiatives the Tories will make it harder for the council to meet the government targets for reducing landfill. If these targets are not met the council will face financial penalties.

However, Councillor David Lee, leader of the council, said the money had been an estimated contingency fund to ensure the new waste and recycling scheme could be introduced smoothly, however it was not needed.

He said the council is investigating introducing additional sites where people can recycle Tetra Paks. At present there are five.

He said the 40 glass bottle recycling points are popular and work well.

Cllr Lee said he believes the new weekly waste collection and recycling scheme, where recycling has gone from fortnightly to weekly and green waste is charged at £60 annually for a wheelie bin, will work well at cutting the amount Wokingham sends to landfill.

He added: “Most authorities are on fortnightly bin collections, which is a lot easier than what we are doing, but I have just driven through Cemetery Junction in Reading and it is a mess. If that is what people think they want in Wokingham, they are mad.

Voters will head to the polls on Thursday, May 3. The count will take place on Friday, May 4.

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Most recent user comments 6 of 6

PoneRana - I know I don't have to put out my recycling every week - I was just making the point that the recycling collections have doubled - but the amount being recycled hasn't. It is claimed to be up 10% so that hardly justifies doing weekly recycling. My point being that the resource available could be better utilised.

Smiffy, Reading
01/05/2012 at 09:41

Would have been far better to increase the number of items they can recycle such as tetrapak and food packaging. This would increase recycling and make it worth while having a weekly collection.

Snowdrop, Twyford
30/04/2012 at 14:41

Smiffy You don't have to put out your black recycling bins every week. Mine go out when they are full.

I am still filling my second blue bag but that will have to go out this week, half full, because it is getting smelly. I suspect that I could put even less in the blue bag if I understood how much of the clear packaging (plastic, cellophane etc) could be recycled.

PoneRana, Wokingham
30/04/2012 at 13:51

Hehehe... 'we made a mess of it, the people we hired made a mess of it... we're very proud of ourselves'. We'll still see no change after the election though.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
30/04/2012 at 10:42

Cemetery Junction isn't really the best place to do a comparison! I personally think leaving black/blue bags out is a mess, especially when they rip and nobody clears up the mess. It is all down to personal interpretation. Also, any mess at Cemetery Junction isn't simply down to them having fortnightly bin collections, more the fact that there are a number of takeaways and bars that often lead to excess littering. He is essentially comparing apples and pears.

Also, I still don't understand why putting out half empty recycling boxes every week is better than full ones every two weeks? It seems like twice the effort for no benefit, other than giving the council a few sound bytes that they are fantastic at recycling!

Smiffy, Reading
30/04/2012 at 10:38

“There have been problems with the new scheme, I accept that. I accept we could have done certain things better. I would also accept on the officers’ behalf they could have done things better and Veolia [waste contractor] could have done things better.”

Voters will head to the polls on Thursday, May 3. The count will take place on Friday, May 4.

The closest thing to an apology, now please vote for us to fumble through government even further in areas such as Elms field, town Centre regeneration, and our drive to further outsource everything in the council!