In a bid to make residents recycle more of their rubbish, to save and indeed, earn, money, Bath and North East Somerset Council’s Cabinet recently voted to approve service changes for local refuse and recycling collections, which will come into force next autumn. Whilst the weekly recycling service will remain the same, the rubbish collection will change to fortnightly, with homeowners provided with either a black wheeled bin or gull proof sack. The day of collection may change, but B&NES Council is stressing that residents will be made fully aware of the changes nearer the time.

The new idea, though, has caused concern amongst large families and local Liberal Democrat Councillors are warning that the move to fortnightly residual waste collections will happen with no consultation and no pilot scheme.

Councillor Ian Gilchrist (Widcombe, Lib-Dem) commented: “Councillors recently had the opportunity to ask questions about the waste review at a scrutiny committee meeting. I was concerned to hear that the move to fortnightly collections of landfill waste will happen without any pilot scheme having been carried out. Examples of schemes run by other Councils were considered adequate enough to make the change here in B&NES.

“The Cabinet report on the waste review claimed that the new service was following a ‘tried and tested methodology’. However, these methods have not been tried and tested in B&NES, which has a unique set of circumstances; not least the challenges relating to access and storage in the World Heritage City of Bath.

“I fear that without a pilot, the changes will be introduced without a good understanding of the potential pitfalls. This could lead to implementation problems, such as disrupted collections for residents and rubbish piling up in the streets, as was seen during the Kier industrial action debacle earlier this year.”

Councillor Neil Butters, (Bathavon South, Lib-Dem), added: “It is also a concern that no public consultation was carried out about these proposals. This is a significant change to the waste collection service, and it is being introduced on the assumption of public support and with no opportunity for residents to give feedback on the proposals. The Conservative administration is clearly uninterested in listening to residents.

“Many will doubtless support the scheme – Bath and North East Somerset residents have long been keen recyclers – but others, who may be very unhappy, have been given no opportunity to protest. The lack of consultation is also a missed opportunity, as residents could have given valuable feedback to improve the scheme, supplying local information which would not have been picked up by the desk-based modelling. It does seem that this has not been fully thought through.”

B&NES Council insists the changes next year will improve recycling rates and tackle problems with street waste, particularly the city of Bath and surrounding areas’ problem with gulls. A spokesperson for the Council said: “There will continue to be three waste collections a fortnight – a recycling collection every week, and residual waste collected every other week.

“This is a tried and tested system, which has been successfully introduced by many councils across the country, with 69% of councils operating this system, including all our neighbouring authorities. Officers from Bath and North East Somerset have held detailed discussions with other councils where the implementation of this approach has proved successful, and improved public satisfaction with the waste collection service. Undertaking a trial period would incur significant additional costs and disruption to the collection rounds.

“The Council is taking a flexible and pragmatic approach to the introduction of wheeled bins, recognising that such bins may not be suitable for all parts of the district or all households. In some sensitive areas, such as the historic centre of Bath, wheeled bins may be inappropriate, so we will look at other solutions, such as gull-proof bags. The Council will be undertaking a period of public engagement on these changes, including locations where wheeled bins are deemed unsuitable, in the months ahead.

“It is also important to note that 75% of all household waste can be recycled and that none of the remaining rubbish collected by the Council goes to landfill, however, it costs £1,000 to send every lorry-load of rubbish off for reclamation – compared to earning £100 for every lorry load of recycling.”