By Cllr Pauline Jorgensen
Wokingham Borough has one of the highest recycling rates in the England. This is entirely down to the hard work of residents over a decade and as a councillor I would like to say: thank you.
This Summer, the Liberal Democrats plan to move bin collections to a new fortnightly system. Tellingly the change is being implemented after elections in May.
Liberal Democrats have said this will increase recycling rates and generate savings, but Conservative councillors have questioned how this will be achieved.
We know that the new system will be less efficient, offering a poorer service to residents, because the bin lorry will still turn up at your house every week but take less of your waste. The Liberal Democrat Executive Member for Environment admitted their new collections scheme will take longer to collect bins. He said, “It’s physically impossible to empty 70,000 wheeled bins in one week”, unlike the current collections system which sees all rubbish and recycling collected in the Borough weekly.
Fortnightly collections are not guaranteed to produce any savings. The Council’s estimated savings assume residents will suddenly stop creating 3% of the waste they currently produce – where will it go? – and recycle 13% more dry waste and 20% more food waste.
In 2022, when the Lib Dem/Labour administration stopped supplying caddy liners, they promised a “targeted communications campaign” would lead to an increase in food recycling rates, which would save the Council £350,000.
Conservative councillors told them this would be a mistake, and tried to get the Lib Dems to change their mind – but we were ignored.
Yet, the Lib Dems failed to meet their food waste target and in a press release last month Lib Dems admitted more work is needed on increasing food waste recycling.
We know that residents don’t want to move to fortnightly collections. Last year, 1,800 residents signed a petition to keep weekly bin collections.
The administration has repeatedly ignored them and arrogantly pressed on even when councillors voted to keep weekly waste collections. The Liberal Democrat Executive Member called the petition “spurious”.
On top of this, our own recent survey shows voters are not warming to the idea either. That is despite the Liberal Democrats having spent nearly eighteen months arguing their case. Responses to our survey across the Borough shows residents are four to one against the change.
In response to the Council’s own consultation, only 24% of people said they liked the idea of fortnightly bin collections.
According to the most recent data held by the Government, the highest recycling rate in England, held by South Oxfordshire, is 61.6%.
Wokingham is currently not far behind at 57%, which demonstrates that people in our Borough want to recycle. This progress has been achieved over many years. We know residents want to do the right thing, and Conservatives believe we should make it easier, not harder, for people to recycle more.
Of the many local authorities that have worse recycling rates than Wokingham, a significant proportion also have fortnightly collections. They include our neighbours Reading and Windsor and Maidenhead, who all have fortnightly collections but recycle less than Wokingham. Even in Brighton and Hove, a council that has been led by the Green Party and has the country’s only Green Party MP, has a fortnightly waste collection regime, recycles less than we do. Their recycling rate is a staggeringly low 30%.
It seems like fortnightly collections are not the magic bullet we have been promised. Not so long ago in fact the Liberal Democrats agreed with us. In 2018 they campaigned on a promise to keep weekly bin collections.
The previous Conservative administration increased recycling rates from 34% nearly a decade ago to over 50% when the Conservatives left office by increasing what could be recycled.
If the Conservatives are elected to run the Council in May, we will reinstate weekly bin collection and expand the recycling service. By getting more people to recycle, we will bring costs down, freeing up money for vital Council services.
Under the Conservatives, we will listen to residents and make your priorities our priorities.
Cllr Pauline Jorgensen is the leader of Wokingham Conservatives
