Dr Neil Hudson MP for Penrith and The Border has criticised the Liberal Democrat-led Eden District Council for voting down a motion to extend the green waste collection service to all houses within the district, raising the issue on the floor of the House of Commons.
Currently, in the Hesket and Skelton Wards there are areas that do not have access to green garden waste bins despite paying the same council tax. Some villages, such as Skelton, have a skip service that is provided once a month which is quickly filled up with the entire village’s green waste. Other areas, such as Southwaite, have no garden waste collection service and instead have to drive to the local Household Waste Recycling Centre in order to dispose of their waste.
Dr Hudson stated: “It is unfair that Eden District Council have not allowed certain areas to have green bins to remove garden waste when other areas within Eden do have access to this. I would like to thank Councillors David Ryland, Elaine Martin, and Colin Atkinson who have been raising this issue directly to Eden District Council. I am fully supportive of these Councillors and the residents who are rightfully demanding a fairer system. To illustrate this, I recently spoke in Parliament about this very issue on the 18th of March and raised my concerns about the current garden waste system.
We cannot allow the restructuring of local government get in the way of providing the best services to communities in these areas. I am not in favour of this local government restructuring, but sadly it is happening and we now need to make it work. I am making clear to all concerned that as we enter this transitional phase, it is important that local decisions and projects are not delayed or put on hold as this would be a huge detriment to our area if this were to occur. Unfortunately, this is what seems to be happening.
The Liberal Democrat-led Eden administration is blaming the previous Conservative administration and local government reform, and it is blaming central Government as well. That is not good enough, especially when EDC have the monetary funds to have a fair garden waste collection scheme in place for all residents. We cannot have delays in decision making because of such restructurings. We should not let party politics impact on our local communities.”
