Much as we worry that residents get bored of us saying it, Liberal Democrats have believed for ages that the combination of alternate weekly bin collections (AWC) and a lack of recycling in Reading have caused lots of problems in Reading.
Now Labour has lost control of the council, things are at last starting to change.
Firstly, the new bottle bank at Cintra Park, long argued for by Liberal Democrat councillors in Redlands, has finally come into use. This at least makes it easier for a few more residents to recycle their glass.
Secondly, after constant pressure to get a consistent policy towards which properties can have weekly sack collections, as opposed to struggling because there's (for example) no space to store bins (a problem affecting lots of terraces in central Reading), things are moving. Not officially - at least not yet - but after two residents in particular contacted the Lib Dem FOCUS team, I am told that a real think is taking place.
Then, newly-Independent councillor Tony Jones surprised everyone at the CCEA Scrutiny Panel (of which I'm the vice-chair) by asking for a formal investigation into a pilot glass recycling scheme. This welcome move was followed by a further call to investigate another Lib Dem manifesto commitment - food waste recycling. We were slightly taken aback - it is the Environment panel which should probably look into these things - but it's saved us the job of getting it onto the agenda! Now to crunch the figures and find out if there's really a reason why Reading cannot do these things that other councils seem to manage perfectly easily.
Comments