Dr Neil Hudson MP continued his campaign for council waste and recycling collection to be reformed - ensuring a fairness in service among local people who all pay the same council tax rates.
Westmorland and Furness Council is trialing a co-mingled recycling collection service, meaning that a refuse vehicle will collect mixed recycling together, for it to be sorted afterwards . While the trial is limited to one route in Ulverston, Dr Hudson is pleased Councillors are finally turning their attention to the issue of waste harmonisation and hopes the trial is a success.
Dr Hudson hopes this trial is a precursor for a more holistic change to waste and recycling collection that will incorporate green waste and bin bags.
Dr Hudson has previously joined constituents in a campaign for fair green waste collection. The issue as it stands is that scores of villages and hamlets are forced to use communal green waste skips that fill up quickly and left to decompose for up to a month despite paying the same council tax rates as others who are provided green wheelie bins for their household garden waste.
With Westmorland and Furness taking charge of waste and recycling services in April 2023, Dr Hudson wrote to the new authority reaffirming his concerns and pushing for change. You can read more about the issue here.
Dr Hudson also previously wrote to Eden District Council regarding blue bin bags which constituents have complained cause issues and are not environmentally sustainable. One solution might be plastic wheelie bins which would stop vermin getting in to bins, reduce the single use plastics and keep streets tidy.
The Council have said that harmonising waste and recycling is a priority, and much work has already started to consider the challenges, practicalities and impacts of various options that need to be considered. You can read more about this and their trial here.
Dr Neil Hudson MP said:
"I'm glad the council is finally turning its attention to waste and recycling harmonisation. It is an issue that really matters to local people and I wrote to leaders during the inception of the new authority calling for this.
"However, I would urge councillors to grasp this opportunity with both hands and go further by making sure everyone has equal access to a green waste services, implementing a wheelie bin service and expanding the amount of materials that can be recycled.
"Put simply, everyone in Westmorland and Furness is part of the same council tax programme, and yet people across my constituency are still forced to put up with vastly different levels of service than those elsewhere in the area."
