WANSTEAD: Councillors debate cuts to garden waste collection (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WANSTEAD: Councillors debate cuts to garden waste collection

12:26pm Tuesday 24th January 2012 in Your Local Areas By Dominic Sutton

Marian Temple in the garden at the Corner House in Wanstead

PROPOSALS to make cuts to garden waste collection services were branded as ‘complete nonsense’ at a meeting of Wanstead and Snaresbrook councillors last night.

As part of the latest round of budget savings, the council’s cabinet are proposing moving weekly collections of garden waste to a fortnightly schedule.

That would result in an estimated saving of £50,000 per year.

but discussing the proposal at last night’s Area One Committee meeting, Snaresbrook councillor, Peter Goody said: “The proposal horrifies me.

“This is a very popular service and to cut it back in this way would be a matter for extreme concern.”

And he added: “This goes totally against our attempts to meet our recycling targets.

“To my mind it is a complete nonsense.”

Redbridge currently recycles 34% of its waste, and officers say any change to collections would impact on the authority’s aim of hitting government targets of 50% by 2015 and lead to an increase in fly-tipping.

But Cabinet Members Michelle Dunn and Sue Nolan, both of whom are members of the Area One Committee, reminded Cllr Goody that any move to ditch the scheme would come at a price.

Cllr Dunn, Cabinet member for Highways and Cleansing, said: “This is not something I am proud to have had to put forward, but at least there’s still a service there for the public. It could have gone completely.

“I have had to make tough decisions, I have tried to stop any public toilets being closed, I have tried to stop an increase in parking, and more cuts in cleansing.

“But if you are saying that you don’t support this, I am quite happy to take that back to cabinet.”

And Cllr Nolan added: “There has to be a health warning here. If we cut this particular saving, then we are going to have to find it from somewhere else.”

Despite those warnings councillors voted by a majority to recommend to cabinet that they remove the proposal from their budget plans.

Keen gardener Marian Temple, 62, of Grove Park in Wanstead, said she believed the cut should go ahead.

Mrs Temple, who planted and looks after the garden at the Corner House on Wanstead High Street, said: “If they need to make cuts somewhere, then I would rather it was something like this.

“It is a wonderfully convenient service, but in hard times, surely we can manage.

“I do my own composting, maybe people could try that.”

Click here to follow the Wanstead & Woodford Guardian on Twitter