THE LEADER of the Democratic group has demanded Malvern Hills District Council hold a public consultation over the decision to potentially scrap weekly bin collections.
After the district council announced it was set to end weekly bin collections across Malvern, Coun Sarah Rouse said the public needed to be involved in the decision.
Her calls came after plans for a joint collection service with Wychavon District Council, provided by a private company with the hope of saving hundreds of thousands of pounds, collapsed.
In 2012, 92 per cent of residents said they wanted to retain weekly collections following a public survey by the district council and those collections were labelled as a ‘political priority for the Malvern Hills’ by Coun Bronwen Behan (Conservative) last year.
Five years later, it looks as though weekly collections are going to be switched to fortnightly.
Coun Rouse said: “The Conservatives have already decided to abandon your weekly collections and their election commitment to you. And they don’t plan to ask you about it.
“Rather than a well-considered plan, we have one that will see half a million pounds of taxpayers money spent without proper consultation, abandoning a service 92 per cent of residents wanted to keep as a priority and we are not even being told how much the alleged savings will be.
“It is time the administration started listening to its residents.
“The Democratic Group is demanding a full public consultation on a fully-costed project so we know how much will be saved and be able to compare that to cuts that we are told would be made elsewhere.”
The district council obtained £1.67million from the Government’s Weekly Collection Support Scheme in 2012 which enabled it to secure the weekly black sack collection.
Impossible
And the administration said it had done all it could to continue the service but insisted there was now a situation when it was financially impossible to continue with the same level of service and making an alteration to the collection had to be considered.
Coun Behan added: “Weekly waste collections have always remained a priority for this council but we have now arrived at a point where it is proving no longer financially sustainable.
“We will do all we can to maintain the service for a further year but in planning for the future your councillors will need to make bold decisions.”
District councillors discussed the proposal for the first time at a meeting of the overview and scrutiny committee yesterday (Tuesday).
Proposals will now go to the decision-making executive committee next week before being presented to the council for a final decision next Tuesday (February 21).
What do you think? Should Malvern Town Council hold a full public consultation on the bin collection plans? How do you feel about the prospect of fortnightly collections? Email your views to [email protected] or write to the address on page eight.
