Welcome to Charlbury

Thu 3 Dec 2009, 22:20

I agree with you in one sense, Sheelagh. Take responsibility for your actions.

But the trouble is that if people arrive to find the bins overflowing and take their stuff away, they will most probably then put it in their wheelie bins, and they won't come back next time to try again: they'll just bin it every time from then on.

Interestingly, if you look at my photo, you'll see that people were leaving their bottles and cardboard as neatly as possible (despite the wind and rain): in other words they were doing their best to see that their waste was recycled and they were trying not to make a mess!

They should be encouraged, not told to take it all away with them and bin it. No?

I think the council should take some pride in encouraging us to recycle, and thereby making the recycling facilities as easy and pleasant to use as possible. After all, the council is in a real sense US: we exercise control through the ballot box, we provide all the money they spend and we pay their wages. The present discouraging and disgusting arrangements are a disgrace to our community because they are carried out on our behalf and in our name.

At the end of the day it has to be the council's responsibility, because they draw up the contracts and enforce them, and if (and it's a big if) council staff are slack in getting the contractors to do their job, then it's the chief officers and the 'cabinet' councillors who are ultimately responsible.

I suggest that if we find the bins full, we should leave our recyclables beside them, and immediately phone Street Scene (the West Oxfordshire District Council department that is responsible) on 01993 861020 and demand that it be cleared.

Then tell the rest of us what they say!

The next step, if this doesn't work, will be to complain direct to the cabinet member of the council who has responsibility for recycling. Perhaps we can have his/her phone number and email address and take it from there. It's why we elect these people: it's what democracy is, or should be, all about!