6 January 2010
The Local Government Association has ramped up its defence of councils’ performance in the row over waste collection.
In a letter to all council leaders in England, Clyde Loakes, vice chair of the LGA’s environment board, lambasts central government for interfering and brands ministers as ‘armchair critics’.
The letter states that councils do not need ‘lessons’ from government ministers on the importance of regular waste collections.
‘Across the country, councils and the hard-working crews who do the work have responded magnificently to the worst pre-Christmas weather seen in many places for decades; and, as every year, have planned carefully for the Christmas period when there is such a spike up in household waste,’ Loakes writes.
‘This has involved, in very many places, crews working on weekends and bank holidays, when I am pretty sure ministers and the other armchair critics were not.’
He goes on to say that the ‘proper response’ of a ‘localist government’ to such issues would be to encourage people to lobby their local councillors.
‘If [ministers] must get involved, talk to the councils where they have clear evidence there is a problem.
‘Regrettably, ministers instead have chosen to present the issue as one affecting the whole sector, and which is not generally being taken seriously enough by it.’
The letter also disputes claims that fortnightly waste collections lie behind the problems. Loakes cites evidence from councils that reduced collections help boost recycling rates.
Local government minister Bob Neill earlier this week wrote to council leaders suggesting they had been complacent about rubbish collection.
‘Families who have been told to stockpile their rotting refuse inside their own homes by councils are entitled to wonder if their council views the rubbish collection as just a favour not a right,’ he said.
