TAMESIDE - A 'wheelie stupid' council

Here we go again!

Not content with turning our towns and villages into recycling slums by allowing multi-coloured wheelie bins to become permanent fixtures on the crowded pavements in most neighbourhoods, the ‘brains trust’ who inhabit Tameside council have now decided that following a trial scheme, it will be a jolly good wheeze to swap the colours and sizes of the recycling bins throughout the borough!

In a feeble effort to show us how much they will save, they have once again spouted figures that my 4 year old grandchild could ride his toy tipper truck through!

In the councils own press release it claims:

“Every year Tameside puts nearly 40,000 tonnes of waste into landfill. This is bad for the environment and it costs local taxpayers £12 million.”

The same crap was echoed by our intrepid Leader in his Blog.

 "Every year in Tameside we spend £12 million putting 40,000 tonnes of waste into landfill."

Well no wonder the 'powers that be' are cutting their budgets if this is how they chuck our money away!

Landfill may very well be ‘bad for the environment’ but it’s the council’s figures that make one worry as to who is working the calculator!

Let’s look at the figures.

Kieran and the council claim that they collect and dump 40,000 tonnes of waste in landfill sights at a cost to Tameside tax payers of £12 million per annum.

But according to the latest Government figures, the Standard tax rate for landfill is: £82.60 per tonne.

£82.60 x 40,000 = £3.304000 (Three million, three hundred and four thousand pounds)

That’s £8.696 million less than the council is claiming!

So what does the bulk of the money actually get spent on, Kieran?

Could it be the repayment of the interest on the £631 million PPI contract with Viridor Laing?

Could it have something to do with the combined authorities’ waste increase in annual GROSS EXPENDITURE from £146.978m to £159.715m?

Perhaps some waste expert could get his backside back to the Radio Station and explain where all the extra £8.7 million really goes. If the council want to cut down on expenditure in the waste department they need to ignore the (£3.3 million) Government Tax on landfill because they have to abide by the European directives, so no amount of bin swapping will reduce that figure. However, they could look at where the bulk of their alleged spend goes (£8.7 million) - the bit that they have omitted to mention!

And while this ‘expert’ is getting his/her ducks in a line over that little conundrum, they might also tell us how one intends to get a quart into a pint pot?

Because according to the council’s bean counters; they believe that the ‘Bin Swap’ means simply swapping the use of the green and black bins. So, the larger black bin is used for glass, plastic, cans. The smaller green bin is then used for waste that can’t be recycled and goes to landfill.

The problem being overlooked here is that a family with 2 kids, who currently fill the Black Bin over a two week period, will still produce the same amount of general waste to fill two Green bins over the same period of time.

Therefore in those circumstances there’s no reduction in general domestic waste.

So, as this daft scheme rolls out, one of two things will happen.

           1)      They will need two green bins to hold the same amount as was in the black bins; which incur extra work for the waste management operatives (Bin Men)

           2)    Finding the bin full after one week, they will put the extra waste into plastic bags and leave them on top of the green bin where they will be ripped apart with the contents scattered by the elements, vermin or other wild life!

Another small insignificance is the fact that the Black bins which have been in use for much longer that the others, will now be totally contaminated with all manner of waste, ranging from dog faeces to left over curries and every conceivable example of detritus in between.

Are these bins now not to be steam cleaned to allow this ‘fresh start?

Will extra bins be provided for larger families?

If so, where are householders supposed to store this multiplication of bins?

If they must continue with their ridiculous pre-occupation with waste, why not conduct a proper survey and issue different sizes of bins to suit either commercial or private sector requirements.

Or, to put it another way, an elderly couple or a singular occupied household will probably only need a small bin whilst a household with 4 children will obviously require a larger bin.

As for colour coding, well so long as they are all uniformed throughout the borough, the scheme couldn't be simpler, er' or could it!