to be a bit pissed off that after all the cuts, £250,000,000 has been 'found' for weekly bin collections?

[Annpan88]

Correct me if I'm wrong but after all these cuts to services and people losing their jobs, I believe the government has decided to make changes to the minor Inconvenience that is fornightly bin collections?

Yes, it is a bit of a pain in the arse but I don't see how its the most important thing in thw world and I'm guessing people are pretty use to it.

I just wonder if people are feeling like me, AIBU?

"I find my wheeliebin will comfortably hold 2 or even 3 bodies if I chop them up carefully. How many are you disposing of?"

Thanks for that, I just spat tea all over my laptop...

Food waste should be collected every week and composted by the council. Landfill should only be collected once every 2 weeks or less to emphasize that this stuff is going to be buried in a hole in the ground and that we need to think about what we are putting in there. This is only my opinion of course but we have the above system where we live and it seems to work well.

And people like me with a decent sized garden should ALL have a wormery (or in my case heap) into which ALL food, soft card and soft paper waste is put to rot down into excellent compost.

Even with the bin strike (9 weeks between collections) I've had no smelly bin and only my recycling overflowed till I started really crushing stuff flat!

I could easily survive on fortnightly or even three weekly collections - family of 4 btw

Lots of people live in flat-fronted terraced houses with no rear access. For them, waste storage is always going to be an issue.

I reckon that home composting and wormeries - even in small gardens - and food waste collections, and reductions in manufacturers' packaging, will help to move people to acceptance of alternate weekly collections.

Most waste collected for recycling does actually get recycled. It's an urban myth that it ends up in landfill ... except: there is no market at the moment for tetrapaks and cheaper plastics. Tetrapaks used to be recycled in Scotland but I understand it closed and the nearest one is now in Sweden. Most 'cheap' plastics eg yogurt pots aren't recyclable. We should be lobbying the manufacturers to change the production method, really.

A lot of councils now don't use landfill, but are using or investing in 'Enery-from-Waste' - controlled incineration and energy capture.

I mean the plant closed, not Scotland itself. Obviously.

YABU. I want a council that gets things like roads, drains and public hygiene right before seeing if there's any money left over for social initiatives. That doesn't mean I'm opposed to social initiatives, but when money is limited I think it's more important to have the basics in place first.

If you're incensed about councils spending money on inappropriate things, read Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs section for examples of council corruption and challenge that; start a campaign about council executive pay. But all those on this thread going on about how it's 'cynical' and just a 'vote-winner' might reflect that this is, after all, a democracy and if weekly rubbish collections are a 'vote-winner' then perhaps delivering something that people vote for is not 'cynical' but democracy in action.

But Pickles has not ASKED what people want.
He announced he'd do it before the election because its his personal bugbear (along with abolishing the Audit Commission)
and he is going to bribe councils to do it even if their local electorate voted for something else
centralisation in action
(and I've subscribed to Private Eye for 20 year)

I think Twunty Cameron may be employing Jeremy Clarkson as a political advisor. It's the only rational explanation for this and proposed speed increase news.

Ours have just gone to fortnightly collections - I'm in Wales so presumably we won't get this money. I think it's ridiculous that some people think weekly collections are more important than libraries or helping people with a disability!

remember remember the 5 of November gun powder treason and plot... seems like a bloody good idea right about now.

what does?

over throwing the government by nefariousness means.

TalkinPeace I see we are on the same page about Puckles and his joint obsessions of rubbish and the Audit Commission :o

In fact, the two are linked because he first took against the AC when they recommended to the council in his constituency that they change to fortnightly collections and the blue rinse brigade in his leafy corner of Essex were up in arms and giving him grief about it

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot
Oh so you want a Catholic Government?
They did not want NO government, they wanted THEIR government
nowadays we do it with elections

which BTW nobody won the last one - so Pickles can just roll off

not sure blowing up the queen would solve much.

Curry
I have worked for and with the Audit Commission - well DA as it was.
He has NEVER forgiven them for the three qualified audits in a row they gave his council
He is an utterly vindictive man who is embroiling the whole country in his hissy fits

alternate weekly collection WORKS
www.clickgreen.org.uk/analysis/general-analysis/121431-council-posts-73-recycling-rate-to-top-the-uk-green-league.html
and saves taxpayers money

yes yes my throw away comment was obviously meant to be taken seriously, lets all convert to Catholicism, strap some gun powder to the house of lords and blow them up.
actually apart from the Catholicism bit...

DuelingFanjo, I'm disabled and a weekly bin collection would help me a great deal. I find it very difficult to get everything into the correct waste bins as they are so heavy and rely on my DH (who has a heart condition) or friends to take extra recycling to the refuse dump as I can't reach into the bins.

I've just started a thread if anyone would like to say what they'd like councils spend an odd £250 million on.
here

Large Supply of Gunpowder not allowed

A gimmick for the Daily Mail readers. They'll ban wheelie bins next even though the rest of Europe have been managing with sheelie bins and recycling boxes for well over a decade

damn it my plan foiled again.

Well we've just had our recycling cut, with the promise of a blue bin possibly in 2013! And we still only get a fortnightly rubbish collection. Have been told to take all our recycling to a point in the village 3 miles away, so am having to buy extra bins for it as anything left out in bags gets ramsacked by foxes.

We are rural and there is NO prospect of anyone coming to empty our bins once a week. It will never happen

That was quick, a reply from my council:

Thank you very much for your comments. We have no plans to return to weekly collections, and I believed that this will be the case going forward as well.

Good.

We have fortnightly collection no problems (tho we have to do our own glass and plastic recycling), but apparently there have been a lot of rat problems locally, apparently connected. No idea if it really is though!

YABU - weekly refuse collection is a basic necessity. I don't pay £190pm in council tax to have maggots growing in my wheely bin thank you.