Swindon Council have announced that they have reversed their decision not to collect green waste bags that have been dumped and all unsightly bags of dumped green waste will now be removed by the end of November, according to senior council streetsmart officers.
Pictured: Local campaigner Chris Watts, and Councillors Derique Montaut and Fay Howard
Swindon Council have announced that they have reversed their decision not to collect green waste bags that have been dumped and all unsightly bags of dumped green waste will now be removed by the end of November, according to senior council streetsmart officers.
In June it was reported that the Council will be leaving fly-tipped green waste in the streets, in order to send a message that it will not be tolerate the fly-tipping of green waste. This led to large numbers of green waste bags left dumped for months on end.
The Labour Group had accused the Council of causing the increase of green waste fly-tipping as a result of their introducing of a £40 green waste collection charge.
The Labour Group’s Shadow Lead for Streetsmart, Councillor Fay Howard, said: “It’s great news that the Council will finally disperse the green waste fly-tipping. My fellow Labour Councillors and I have been urging the Council to take this action, as what we have found since the Council has stopped collecting green waste fly-tipping is that that more and more bags have been piling up. Sadly, it seems the sight of fly-tipping only encourages some people to fly-tip even more and that is why this action is so necessary. If this decision hadn’t been taken, then certain areas of Swindon would have become blighted with this waste.
With the Council now saying that they will be collecting all of the fly-tipped green waste, I would urge all residents to report any green waste that has been dumped to the Council or their councillors.
Responding to Swindon Cabinet’s protestation that the new chargeable green waste collection service has been a success, Councillor Howard said: “It is true that the number of residents taking up the service is more than the Council had projected, but it is also true that queues at the Waste & Recycling Centre are as high as they have ever been because of this, so I can’t see how anybody can see this new service as being a success.”