In the depths of the biggest economic crisis we have known - weekly bin collections and higher motorway speeding limits??? wtf?

[elliott]

That's it really. How the government can justify spending money on these trivial and blatantly populist policies whilst cutting support for the vulnerable (and the rest of us) is just deeply depressing. Priorities anyone??

I have fortnightly bin collections, and I actually don't put my bin out for half of them because it's hardly got anything in. Unless they're going back to collecting just bin bags instead of wheely bins, this is completely absurd. There's no way a normal size family can generate enough rubbish in a week to fill a wheely bin, and if they are then they need a kick up the arse. Bet it's all those rich non-single parents who aren't on benefits who throw away so much?

Oh and I have a toddler in nappies, so that's not even an excuse. Plus people should be using washable nappies anyway if they have a washing machine.

i'M imagining DC in some cabinet blue-sky-thinking meeting - 'OK, guys, what can we do that won't cost much but will make the tabloid front pages, deflect attention from the fact that we are failing to deal with the economy, take the focus off our plans to dismantle the NHS and have the added bonus of buggering up the environment?'

Great.

MrPants: thats not the relevant figure, the relevant figure is the deficit not the debt.

More importantly, you can make that argument about each and every spending commitment, the government has a lot of them! If you took that attitude you would never cut anything!

The more relevant point is the relative importance of that compared to other things which could be done with the money. That is the same amount of money cut from the legal aid budget, so rather than introducing unnecessary bin collections to please a minority who are too butt lazy to recycle they could provide access to legal representation for those who other wise cannot afford it. Not to mention that even if it were free, weekly bin collections are environmentally a terrible terrible idea, recycling rates across the board have gone through the roof since fortnightly collections were introduced.

Frankly, the mere suggestion makes a mockery of the "we're all in this together - spending cuts are necessary" line and shows the true extent of the ideology behind it.

DC said on TV this week that the weekly bin collection refers to smelly waste.

We have fortnightly collection of all waste that's not recycling but that means we have to throw food waste/the occasional nappy in with the normal rubbish so I would welcome having what it seems lots of councils already do have, a weekly smelly waste collection.

"The new Weekly Collections Support Scheme will both support weekly collections and enable councils to invest in schemes and projects that will benefit the environment including through raising recycling rates. In the coming months councils will be invited to submit innovative bids for funding."

www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1998987

So it's not just weekly bin collections but also for schemes to help with recycling.

As for the speed limit, I think people mostly drive at the speed they feel they are in control of the car at, so putting up the limit won't necessarily make people drive faster, just mean they aren't breaking the law so much. Unless someone's driving far faster than everyone else, crashes on motorways in my opinion, are rarely about speed, more about undertaking and driving too closely and not paying enough attention for whatever reason.