Almost 10,000 people have signed a petition against the possibility of Bristol becoming the first council in the country to switch to collecting non-recyclable rubbish every month – as the fallout from the council’s proposal becomes a bitter political row.
People across the city have been asked to fill in a survey on the question of whether the frequency of ‘black bin’ collections should stay fortnightly or switch to every three or even four weeks.
That consultation ends next month and council chiefs said it will be only then that they have to collate the results and make a decision. But even raising the possibility that it could be every four weeks – no other council in the country has that lengthy time between collections – has triggered a furious backlash from many people, and a row between the people who used to run the council and those who do now.
Last month, Bristol Live were the first to report that Bristol City Council were considering changing the frequency of bin collections. We reported that no decision had been made, but a consultation would be launched – that is now up and running – which had three options: keeping black bin collections fortnightly, switching to every three weeks, or switching to every four weeks.
Labour have put standing against the four-weekly bin collection idea at the forefront of their campaigning in Bristol, but the ruling Green Party have demanded apologies and retractions at what it says are attempts by Labour to mislead people in Bristol about what is actually happening.
The petition, on the 38 degrees website, was set up by the Labour group leader at City Hall, Cllr Tom Renhard (Lab, Horfield ) and is fast approaching 10,000 signatures – each person who has signed it has now provided Bristol’s Labour Party with their email address for future campaigning.
The petition is headlined ‘Say no to monthly bin collections’ – and even that is slightly misleading. One of the council’s options in the consultation is to switch to four-weekly, not monthly, albeit four-weekly would mean 13 collections of black bins every year rather than 12.
But much of the Green Party’s fury, which has taken the form of writing to various Labour politicians demanding retractions and apologies, comes from Labour talking about the bin change as if the decision has already been made.
When Environment Secretary Stephen Reed was asked about it on ITV ’s Good Morning Britain, he said: “I’m aware that in Bristol the Green-led council there has decided to move to monthly bin collections. It’s for people living in Bristol to pronounce on what they think of their council’s decision there. They will get a vote at a local election and they can change the make-up of their council if that is what they want to do.”
That prompted a furious response from Cllr Martin Fodor, the Green Party chair of the council’s environment committee, who said no decision has been made at all – and they were waiting to hear what people in Bristol said in the consultation about the various options. He also pointed out that there are many Labour-run councils which have already changed their bin collection frequencies as well. “He may be unaware that his Labour colleagues running other local authorities such as North Somerset and South Gloucestershire have recently made changes to their waste collection schedules and even consulted upon four weekly collections themselves,” he said.
“We ask him to confirm that none of his Labour-led cities are considering reducing waste collections, and whether or not he can promise they will not do this in the next couple of years?
“If the minister has suggestions on how to reach his 65% recycling target without reducing waste collection frequency, Bristol City Council looks forward to hearing them. I ask the minister to retract his comments, and we look forward to working with Labour at a national level to improve our waste and recycling services,” he added.
The demand for a retraction was similar to the letter sent by Green Party group leader Cllr Emma Edwards to her Labour counterpart Cllr Tom Renhard, the man behind the petition. She accused him of misleading people in Bristol. “I know Tom, and I am sure he would want Bristol’s residents to take part in the current consultation on improving Bristol’s recycling provision,” she said. “However, some of the comments attributed to him are factually incorrect and need urgent clarification to make sure the public doesn’t get the wrong end of the stick.”
“We’re really driven to explore all the options on the table to sort out the dropping recycling rates we inherited in Bristol. This means that some things have to change, but we want to hear first from residents directly about how this could happen,” she added.
“Unfortunately, Cllr Renhard has misled the public about decisions that have not yet been made, and I hope he will apologise. Bristol Labour have been talking rubbish. They would much rather collect names on petitions to harvest email addresses rather than petition their government for adequate funding for local authorities,” she added.
Cllr Heather Mack, another Green Party council leader, said that they were asking people what they think and hadn’t made a decision yet. “First, I want to reassure you that there have been no decisions made to go to monthly bin collections,” she said. “What we are doing is asking your views on waste and recycling as part of wider plans to re-evaluate our rubbish and recycling collections…
“We know the service was patchy last year and as a new Green-led council, we want to try to improve that. The previous Labour administration in Bristol underfunded our waste collection leading to a lot of problems that we see today,” she added.
The demands for an apology and retraction have received short shrift from Labour in Bristol. A party spokesperson dismissed the Green’s call for a retraction, and called for a public meeting on the issue. “The Green Party are playing dirty politics,” he said. “Nearly 10,000 people have signed our petition calling for a stop to their plans If they’re really serious, let’s have a public meeting. Let’s hear what the people of Bristol have to say on this in an open forum,” he added.
Cllr Renhard pointed out that the ruling Green Party-led coalition, which Labour has chosen not to be part of, has already earmarked more than £1 million in savings from the Bristol Waste column in this year’s council budget, indicating that they have already decided to make big changes to save money.
But the idea of switching to four-weekly, or even three-weekly collections for black bins has not gone down well with Bristol Live readers. “I am very much in support of reducing waste, increasing recycling and being more sustainable, however I do not think that this is the answer and if we are going to see a reduction in the bin emptying frequency – will this cost saving be passed on to us as the council tax payers? I think not, we will continue to pay for a service we won’t be getting and have to deal with the overflowing bins on our door steps for the privilege!” one commenter said.
Another commenter, ‘Cdubs’ agreed: “Without the proper infrastructure to make this work this will be a disaster. We already have to navigate our way through overfull bins everyday on the school run, with recycle boxes left out with broken glass, tins and more. A two weekly household waste collection is just about manageable, if you want people to recycle more you need to make this easier.
“The tiny boxes for recycling leave the risk of being used by others to dump mucky waste in. There are no easy to reach drop off points where people might put cardboard, and larger recyclable items. I strongly suspect that this is less about recycling and more about saving money and will only be of benefit to the more wealthy areas of Bristol who have regular street cleaning and fly tipping attended to in good time.”