LIB DEMS REJECT LABOUR PUSH FOR FORTNIGHTLY RUBBISH COLLECTIONS (Islington Liberal Democrats)

Islington Liberal Democrats <Islington_ld@cix.co.uk>

LIB DEMS REJECT LABOUR PUSH FOR FORTNIGHTLY RUBBISH COLLECTIONS

November 29, 2006 12:00 AM

Islington's Lib Dems have slammed the Labour party for calling on them to follow the example of St Edmundsbury Council to ratchet up recycling rates, who achieved it by going over to only collecting waste fortnightly.

Cllr Lucy Watt, in response to a Labour motion calling for Islington to follow rural St Edmundsbury's example, said: "Labour are suggesting we follow the St Edmundsbury example to get higher recycling rates. But they only got their recycling rates up so high by getting rid of weekly collections of rubbish, forcing people to recycle instead.

"Islington is a very different place to this rural town, and we firmly believe that local residents won't accept any cuts to their residual rubbish collections until they can clearly see that so much is being recycled, there's no longer any point to a weekly collection. Labour is totally jumping the gun here, and I believe residents would be up in arms if Labour tried to cut local people's waste collections.

"Recycling in Islington has comes so far since Labour's days running the service, when recycling levels languished at just 3.5%. They have shot up to 24% under the Lib Dems, and we will continue to work to get them higher, but without such draconian measures as this."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

In a motion due to go to council on the 5th December, the Islington Labour Group have called for Islington Council to follow the example of councils who have achieved 50% recycling rates to push up recycling rates in Islington. The only council in the country who has achieved a 50% recycling rate is St Edmundsbury, who have only achieved this by cutting the collection of residual waste from weekly to fortnightly. Only nine other councils manage to get their recycling rates even above 40%, and all of those are also rural areas who have also used fortnightly collections to do so.

Islington's recycling rate has rocketed since the Liberal Democrats took control of Islington Council, going from 3.5% in 1999 to 23% in the most recent figures, far exceeding the Government's target for the borough of 18%.