Councillor Emmott criticises recycling response as simplistic

Heywood councillor Susan Emmott, responding to criticism by the Council Portfolio Holder for the Environment and Sustainability, Councillor Wera Hobhouse, has said that Rochdale Council’s response to recycling is ill thought out and has learned nothing from other recycling schemes in neighbouring boroughs. She maintains that to reduce the collection of general household waste from every week to every fortnight and then to collect other items in the weeks between is a "simplistic response", and that residents will get a reduced service for their Council Tax.

Councillor Emmott added: "It is the general household waste such as food, nappies, and incontinence pads that rot and produce rancid smells during warm summer months and attract rats, flies, maggots and other vermin. That is my major concern over this so-called 'alternate weekly collection', as Rochdale has quaintly named its fortnightly general refuse collection. This has been tried elsewhere, and there has been an increase in rats, flies, maggots and other vermin, so much so that DEFRA has now launched an enquiry into the problems they have caused.

"Councillor Hobhouse would have us believe that her fortnightly collections or 'managed collections' as she has now taken to calling them, are the only way to reach government recycling targets and EU landfill directives. She accuses me of scare mongering – there is no greater scare mongerer on this issue than her. Her scare mongering about cuts in services and council tax rises are nonsense. I wish she would open her eyes to other recycling schemes in nearby boroughs.

"Bury keeps a weekly household refuse collection, yet has been able to increase the amount it recycles from 5.64% in 2002 to an impressive 23.23% now – that is a higher figure for recycling than Rochdale managed in the past year – just below at 20% - which of course already includes the fortnightly collection of general household waste in the Pennines Township. Who is Councillor Hobhouse trying to kid?

"If our neighbours in Bury can be further on the way to meeting 2010 recycling targets while keeping a weekly household refuse collection, then why can’t we?

"Stockport also keeps a weekly household refuse collection and has managed to increase recycling from 11.62% in 2002 to a massive 31.56% in 2006. Stockport has been Liberal Democrat controlled for some years now. Why has Councillor Hobhouse not consulted her Liberal Democrat colleagues in Stockport to find out how they have tripled their recycling rates while still offering a weekly household collection to residents?

"Rochdale’s response to recycling has been woefully inadequate. They are proposing a reduced service to residents and not offering residents a single penny in return through their Council Tax. There is a hidden agenda here and it has nothing to do with recycling.

"Many people don’t see much for their Council Tax, a weekly collection of their household refuse is one of the few services they value and pay for."