WOKINGHAM borough’s waste collection regime could be in for a shake-up, but the new Lib Dem-run council said it was too early to say if it meant the end of the weekly general rubbish collections.
The previous Conservative-run administration held a consultation last year, as the current doorstep collection contract comes to an end in 2026. The service needs to be tendered for and it was with this in mind that residents views were sought.
The only thing that won’t change is the need to collect food waste on a weekly basis – this is a mandatory requirement under the 2021 Environment Act.
The executive member for environment, sport, and leisure, Cllr Ian Shenton, said that collecting food waste was a win-win as it was good for the environment, and council finances.
“Disposing of general waste costs us more than three times as much as disposing of food waste – the difference is £80 per tonne,” he said.
“We are currently working on a new waste collection strategy. (The council) began the process last October, when we asked residents what matters most when they think of our waste collection service.
“More than 2,000 residents responded and told us that the most important thing about our waste collections is the environmental impact, followed by convenience and then cost.”
The council is now preparing options for the new service, which will then be put to residents.
“We expect to have the options ready this summer and will be asking residents what they think of them in early autumn,” he said.
Mindful of concerns that this would bring the end of blue bags of the introduction of wheelie bins, he said: “I can’t make any promises about what the new waste collections strategy will look like, because we need to do this right. We need to find out what residents think before we can make any decisions.
“What I can promise is that we’ll go through a fair and transparent process. We will be sending a postcard to every household in the borough about the consultation and want as many residents to participate as possible.”
At a meeting of the executive last week, Conservative councillor Norman Jorgsensen asked Cllr Shenton to commit to keeping weekly collections. If Wokingham did, it would be an outlier. Neighbouring Reading alternates weekly collections between recycling and general waste, while Bracknell Forest collects general waste once every three weeks.
Cllr Shenton said it would be wrong the pre-empt the outcome until the new consultation with the residents had taken place.
Afterwards, Cllr Jorgensen said: “It’s clear (they) won’t guarantee to keep (a) weekly bin collection.
“We will be absolutely clear with residents – if we were in charge, the Conservatives would keep weekly bin collection.”
Cllr Shenton said that councillors had taken time to read responses to the Conservative-led consultation. Some had been “verbartim duplicates”, others “highlights a significant level of confusion between two alternative systems”.
It had been, he said, a qualitative consultation. “The administration should have initiated a survey with a demographically balanced sample of respondents within a statistically significant sample size, but they chose not to do that. Instead, they choose to misrepresent the results,” he said.
“The fact that the Conservatives are at this stage making an issue of maintaining a weekly collection may suggest to some that they are not participating in the cross-party waste strategy working group with an open mind,” he said.
“I will do my utmost to ensure that residents’ views inform the outcome, which of course will also comply with the mandates of the Environment Act.”
