From our District Councillor
WEEKLY RUBBISH COLLECTION HERE TO STAY
LESS LANDFILL, BETTER RECYCLING, PLASTICS COLLECTION
East Cambridgeshire residents will be relieved to know that their weekly
rubbish collection has been retained and the inexorable invasion of the wheelie
bin stopped short at their borders.
In addition, from Spring 2008 plastics will be picked up from the kerbside along with existing fortnightly collections of black box recyclables and brown sack garden waste.
According to the Conservative's waste management project leader, Councillor David Brown, the disposal problem of black bag residual waste will be greatly reduced when a new mechanical biological treatment plant (MBT) comes on line at Waterbeach in 2009. He said: "This will ensure that the District's landfill dependence is kept well short of soon to be imposed Government limits."
"If we exceed these limits we shall face of £150.00 per ton of excess but we are confident now that this won't happen to us." Welcoming the announcement, Conservative Council Leader, Brian Ashton said: "We have been experimenting with fortnightly collection in Witchford, Burwell and Bottisham. They hate it. We have knocked on doors throughout the District, we have listened to residents and we have reacted to the majority view. "We have delivered. Furthermore we have done so within budget."
"Fortnightly collection trial villages will be reverting to weekly collection very shortly with apologies for the inconvenience they have endured and grateful thanks for their forbearance. It was not a Conservative led council that did this to them, but it is a Conservative Council that has put a stop to it once and for all."
The Waterbeach MBT plant will receive thousands of tons of Cambridgeshire's household waste. It will remove any remaining recyclable materials, process the organic element to reduce its volume and produce a compost-like soil which can be used for land restoration.
Because a certain amount of organic material is required for the process to work, kitchen waste will be welcomed in the weekly black sack collections.
Mountains of garden waste remain an expensive issue, but the Conservative budget will enable the Council to increase spending on public education, encourage more home composting and reduce excessive use of brown paper sacks.
Commenting on the outcome of extensive negotiations over many months with various waste management contractors, Cllr David Brown said: "East Cambridgeshire District Council has opted to stay with our existing contractor, Veolia, whom we believe can deliver our new and improved service within budget and to the satisfaction of Council Tax Payers."