UK NEWS

COUNCIL WASTES £50,000 STORING BINS IN A FIELD

Tuesday May 27,2008

By Doug Watson

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FAMILIES are paying £1,000 a week to store unused wheelie bins while local politicians argue about their rubbish collections.

Stacks of 15,000 new bins have been languishing in a farmer’s field for a year as councillors cannot agree how often to take away domestic refuse.

People in Wear Valley, County Durham – with a bill of more than £50,000 so far – have hit out at the squandering of their council tax.

Sales negotiator Mark Walton, 39, of Willington, said: “These green-obsessed councils are quick to hand out fines for dropping litter yet they leave 15,000 bins on a farm for a year while they bicker. It’s disgraceful.”

Mother-of-two Vanessa Booth, 29, of Crook, said: “These councillors should be ashamed for wasting so much public money when it’s needed for housing and nursery provision.”

The then Labour-controlled council agreed a £560,000 deal last year for 30,000 wheelie bins split in two sections for different household rubbish. They claimed support from opposition parties to switch from weekly to fortnightly collections, with landfill waste picked up one week and recyclables the next.

When elections left a hung council last year, the scheme was put on hold and the first batch of 15,000 bins stored on the farm near Crook.

Now the Liberal Democrats are in control and accused of a U-turn after allegedly first backing fortnightly pick-ups. But their leader Tommy Taylor said that because of health risks, they never agreed to scrap weekly rounds. He said: “As a ground on which we were elected was to oppose fortnightly collections, putting the new bins out would be a direct change of policy.”