Residents’ fury as Council prepares to introduce three-week uplift for bins
Binmen on their rounds in West Dunbartonshire.
By Bill Heaney
The public reaction to an SNP plan to introduce a three-week bin uplift service in West Dunbartonshire must surely have wiped the smile off the Chuckle Brothers’ faces this week.
Council leader Jonathan McColl and his finance convener colleague Cllr Ian Dickson could not have come up with a more unpopular policy had they tried, tried and tried again.
The very first comment following Cllr Jim Bollan flagging up the SNP proposal on social media came from Jackie Maceira who wrote: “That’s a big mistake.”
And so say all of us was the almost unanimous agreement from the punters who picked up the thread.
Cllr Bollan’s message was stark and straightforward but certainly not sweet: “Three-week bin uplift service coming soon. The SNP Council say they will limit redundancies including compulsory redundancies.”
There was an outpouring of dismay and disbelief that Cllr McColl and his Tory friends were going to foist this on the community – especially after the uproar his no grass cutting and neglect of public spaces proposal received.
Ninety-two comments and no less than 30 shares in protest on Facebook is more than enough to send any politician to his U-turn manual.
And a very big shovel to dig himself out of a very deep hole.
Here are a few of the reactions from members of the public:
Jackie Maceira: “That’s a big mistake.”
AJ Mullen: “Hope they are dishing out more bins! Or I’ll be dropping my bags off at council offices.”
Jim Bollan: “The plan is to give you an additional blue bin”
AJ Mullen: “That will be great for the extra week of milk cartons and cereal boxes. It’s the general waste bins that are packed full every second week.”
Róisín Áine Kelly: “For a family of four who recycle, we are already overflowing at two weeks.”
Patrick Murray “We are overrun with rats as it is.”
Ian Allan: “They would rather waste £4.6 million on a library/museum in the town centre.
“The sooner West Dumbartonshire residents get rid of this SNP administration the better.”
Róisín Áine Kelly suggested our councillors operated with a “fur coat and nae knickers” mentality – “Yes, we’d have a swanky new library, but the rubbish in the streets would be overflowing.”
Iain Ellis’s question was more searching politically: “Was this hidden in the budget or is this them starting next year’s cuts?”
He added: “I see a public protest coming just like the grass cutting. They could end up with egg on their face again. Do you know what councillors sit on the Committee? I feel lots of e-mails going their way.”
Cllr Bollan replied: “The thinking behind it is that if the landfill bin is only collected every three weeks then this will enforce people to recycle more!
Who will clean up the overspill that will follow … Is this another of Mrs White’s grand savings plans …Beggars belief! Cut after cut!
Denise Mullen said: “Aye well this is thanks to everyone who voted them in. I always said they are just Scottish Tories, idiots who waste money.”
Margo Sharp asked: “Will someone please tell these clowns that two weeks is long enough for general rubbish collection.”
Iain Ellis came back in: “What has happened to the authorities’ no compulsory redundancies?
“If it’s to come then can we start with all the SNP clowncillors at the top of the list.”
UINTE trade union official Margaret Wood said: “The no redundancy policy is still in place but it can be lifted at any time.”
Michael Cavan said: “I’m sure the message would hit a home run if everyone took their excess rubbish to their SNP Councillor’s Surgery and left them with it.
“Even if people went to their Recycling Plant with extra rubbish I’m sure the road queues on Renton Road and in Old Kilpatrick would be chaos at times.”
John Ireland made a very good point: “Please don’t blame the refuse collectors. They only do their job to the best of their ability with the resources they have.”
Drew MacEoghainn said: “This is a nonsensical policy. If I take my situation with three kids, one still in nappies and two adults in my house and we are to get the same collection every three weeks as a single person living alone.”
This contribution from Sean McFall more or less summed up the public view on this: “Ms White and her senior colleagues live in comfort and get a fat pension. Friends of WDC employees get nice contracts without the bother of having to prepare a tender.
“Oh, and don’t forget the extravagant offices that aren’t fit for purpose, the unanswered phones, the bodged road repairs or the £Ms in uncollected rent and council tax.”
Elizabeth Haggart made a prediction. She said: “This is not going to work and, as far as I know, it has not worked anywhere it has been used in the UK.
“As other people have said it will result in more stinking rubbish lying about and there are those who don’t bother about recycling and fill their blue bins with crap.
“Then there’s the stench, flies and wasps around overflowing rubbish bins.”
James McAlister asked: “Will the Council be issuing residents with additional bins? If not there will be one awful mess of rubbish lying around the whole of West Dunbartonshire.
“I’ve been a regular recycler for years now, but I will NOT be taking normal bin rubbish to any recycling plant as the result of not having space in my existing bins for it.”
Last word from Kim Varney: “This is a joke. Council tax goes up but services are cut. Just gets worse.”
No word from West Dunbartonshire Council. Communicating with The Democrat appears to be beneath them, but we haven’t gone away you know, and we refuse to be gagged by both the SNP and the SNP/Tory administration on the Council.
McColl, Wood, Bins and Bollan