Bristol City Council has sparked fury among locals after unveiling plans to reduce waste bin collections to once a month.
Leader of the Bristol Labour Party, Tom Renhard, has hit out at the proposals by creating a petition against the move, which has garnered almost 10,000 signatures by furious residents.
SIGN OUR PETITION: CALLING FOR HARSHER PUNISHMENT FOR THOSE THAT TRASH OUR COUNTRY
Speaking to GB News, Councillor Renhard hit out at the Green Party-led authority and claimed the decision is a “huge issue of concern” for Bristol.
Renard told reporter Jack Carson: “It’s a huge issue of concern for us – once every four weeks is not something that would feel manageable for black bin collection.
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Bristol council has sparked outrage after proposing plans to only collect waste bins once a month
GB News / PA
“The one service that everyone should be getting in this city is waste and recycling collection services.”
Expressing concern for waste building up in neighbourhoods, particularly houses with “bigger families”, Renhard suggested that the council has “already made their mind up” about the move.
Renhard told the People’s Channel: “There are proposed budget cuts to non-recyclable waste in the budget that has been put forward by the Green Party, so that suggests they may well already have made their mind up about what they intend to do.
“There’s been a lot of talk about needing to drive up recycling rates. It’s absolutely right we do try and find other ways to recycle, we have to consider bigger families as well and what their needs might be.”
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When pressed by Jack on the City Council’s claims that the move could potentially save millions of pounds, Renhard argued that residents must get the “best value services for their money”.
Renhard explained: “We want to get the best value for the money, we want to make sure we invest in it in basic services.
“There’s been about £7.5million increase in the in the Bristol waste budget from 2021, so there’s been a lot of extra investment in to make sure residents and taxpayers are getting what they need.”
In a stark warning to the Green Party, Renhard highlighted that reducing waste collections could in turn “drive up levels of fly-tipping” in the city.
Councillor Tom Renhard told GB News that the plans are a ‘huge issue of concern’
GB News
Renhard stated: “Cutting the funding and then thinking that’s going to drive up recycling, we need to be very careful because what it could do is drive up fly-tipping, which will also add cost as well, because these fly tips do cost money to clear.
“There’s also been a lot of residents that already aren’t getting a good waste or recycling collection service.
“I’ve had residents that haven’t had recycling collections for three weeks when they’re meant to be weekly, I’ve had residents that haven’t had bin collections as well, so there also needs to be a big focus on sorting out the existing waste and recycling service before we start talking about cutting people’s services.”
In a statement, Councillor Martin Fodor, Chair of Bristol City Council’s Environment and Sustainability Committee said: “We firmly believe that by collecting black bin waste once every three to four weeks instead of two will increase the amount of waste our city recycles, reduce costs and significantly lower carbon emissions.”
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