THE FUTURE of Wokingham’s doorstep waste collections will be put up for a residents’ consultation according to the new Lib Dem-run executive.
Cllr Ian Shenton, the executive member for environment and leisure, said the existing contract, which collects blue bags, recycling and food waste on a weekly basis, was up for renewal in 2026.
“In preparation for that, last year a cross-party working group was set up through the previous administration to develop a sustainable waste strategy in conjunction with the wider climate change agenda,” he said.
“As part of the ongoing work and additional initial consultation of residents has been undertaken and feedback shows that protection of environment is a high priority for them.
“It was then agreed to undertake further community consultation in late autumn of this year on options to improve the environmental benefits of waste collection in the borough.”
Cllr Shenton said the new administration would listen to responses and then decide what is the best path to follow.
“It would therefore be quite wrong to pre-empt the outcome of the jointly agreed process until further consultation with residents has taken place,” he said, responding to a question from Cllr Norman Jorgensen, who wanted to know if the new administration would commit to maintaining the weekly collections.
Local authorities are required by law to collect food waste at least once a week from residents.
In his follow-up question, Cllr Jorgensen said he was “just a bit surprised” that the executive was planning a new consultation, as at the recent extraordinary council meeting on local elections, the Lib Dems voted to maintain the current three years in four electoral system, rather than switching to once every four years, which the consultation results appeared to favour.
“You ignored the residents desire for an all-out elections which was expressed through a consultation,” he said. “If the waste strategy consultation shows local people want weekly bin collections, how can residents have confidence that this coalition will take note of their wishes?”
Cllr Shenton said: “We will listen to the responses to the consultation, then we will make a decision.”
