Terraced homes in Westfield may get wheeled bins

Hope that a new re-use centre will reduce landfill tax costs

Streets in the Westfield area being considered for wheeled bins click for full list

A report being discussed by the Council later in the month suggests that an additional 5,564 properties across York may get wheeled bins to replace residual waste sacks. Wheeled bins are preferred by the Council as they are more secure (from vandals and rodents), are easier and safer to handle and reduce emptying time.

However, in the past assembling bins at a central collection point has been unpopular with some residents.

A complete list of streets which are likely to be considered for the introduction of wheeled bins can be found by clicking here

The report also reviews the decision of the last Labour Council not to establish a re-use facility in the City. In 2011 the then Council leadership abandoned the re-use and salvage centre planned for a site at Harewood Whin. Together with the closure of the recycling centre on Beckfield Lane the decision was partly to blame for a subsequent increase in the volume of waste going to landfill.

The new Council are looking at the successful re-use centre in Leeds which generates a surplus for the Council by reusing furniture.

Re-use centre

There is thought to be a similar opportunity in York where many re-usable electrical items are scrapped. The report says “Reuse remains a key opportunity when it comes to reducing the amount of rubbish that goes to landfill and the associated costs. Reusing an item, rather than throwing it away, can prolong its useful life, reduce the need for finite valuable resources and potentially create work opportunities in terms of repair and maintenance”.

Currently the City depends on a varied range of voluntary groups such as Freecycle York, Bike Rescue and the community furniture store to promote the reuse of serviceable goods.

Other proposals being considered include:

Improving recycling in flats
Collecting mixed plastics (not recommended at present for cost reasons)
Extending garden waste collections to properties currently not covered (those that have green waste)
Imposing more restrictions on the number of permits available for the use of Household Waste sites by people using vans
Rationalising the number of sub-urban recycling bin sites (more consultation is promised before any are removed)
Co-mingling of recycling (not recommended for cost reasons)
The type of new collection vehicles to be purchased (leased) for use in narrow streets.

York Council now fining people who put out refuse bins early

The York Council has started to issue Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) to residents who either put their bins out too early or who overfill them.

Since April, seven £80 FPNs have been issued with the Council receiving £320 in fine income so far.

The policy is understood to be a response to growing problems with waste being left for long periods in back lanes. This can attract vermin and is also unsightly

The Council issues the following guidance on waste collection

“Dispose of your waste lawfully

You have a number of options to dispose of your waste lawfully and responsibly:

York Freecycle – put your reusable belongings on line for local customers to collect
York Community Furniture Store – free collections of good quality reusable furniture
Recycling banks
visit a Household Waste Recycling Centre to take a wide range of items for recycling and disposal
arrange a bulky collection for any large items of rubbish

For larger amounts and DIY tasks consider hiring a skip. Skip companies also need to be registered with the Environment Agency.

Remember that our general waste collections are not meant for bulky and excess items, so we can not to take extra bags and large items. You could be liable for a statutory notice if you leave waste the street. Failure to comply with a notice can result in a fixed penalty ticket for £100 or a court appearance with a maximum fine of £1,000. Please always bag your rubbish and don’t put out extra waste if you have a bin”.

Plans to boost Winter Recycling Collections

Plans to empty Green Bins on two additional occasions this winter will be considered on 10^th August.

An officer report outlines options to either

have two additional green waste collections in November or
one additional collection in November with one additional collection in January.

Last year the then Labour led Council was heavily criticised for ending green bin emptying at the end of October. Only a by election win for the Liberal Democrats in the Westfield ward prompted the newly balanced Council to add in an additional collection in January.

The published report fails to indicate how much green waste was collected during this January collection which was also intended to pick up discarded Christmas trees.

Nor is any weekly collection volume data is included.

The same meeting will confirm bin emptying arrangements for the Christmas period. The paper includes plans to improve recycling collections by reducing from four weeks to three weeks the maximum time that people would need to wait between collections.

Roughly half the city missed one recycling collection during the Christmas period last year and so had to wait 4 weeks between collections.

The Council have yet to publish details of any pre decision all party discussion meeting. In the absence of such a meeting residents will be able to make representations at the meeting on 10^th and also to make written representations.

(more…)

Council to support students and charity during end of term rubbish clear up

As part of this year’s campaign for a tidy end to the academic year, City of York Council is working with British Heart Foundation (BHF) to back its fundraising, and support students to recycle and dispose of waste responsibly.

In this, the third year of the campaign, the council will be making extra collections of grey bins or bags – whichever are usually collected – on Saturday 27 June in The Groves, Hull Road and Fishergate areas. Students leaving their accommodation for the summer and residents will both feel the benefit and are being urged to make the most of this opportunity.

Besides putting out their waste, local people and students will be encouraged to donate to BHF items suitable for sale, at 10 permanent clothing banks at key drop off points located across the city and university campuses.

These will be collected by the charity and sold as part of its Fight For Every Heartbeat campaign.

Information leaflets and maps of BHF collection bin locations and BHF collection bags will shortly be distributed to households in the three areas.

Last year 1,899 bags were collected through BHF’s special collection bins. Each had an average weight of 8.2 kilos, yielding a total 15.6 tonnes of donations which, using BHF’s estimate that each bag has a £20 value, £37,980 was raised for the British Heart Foundation by York residents and students.
(more…)

2,762 sign “save our bins” petition

Massive opposition to green bin charges and reduced bin emptying frequencies

Council consultation leaflet click to access

Over 2700 residents have signed the petition objecting to green bin emptying charges and a possible reduction in grey bin emptying frequency (to every 3 or 4 weeks).

The signatures were obtained in a “door to door” campaign conducted mainly on the west of the city.

click to enlarge

The petition can now be signed “on line” (click). Internet access to the petition was suspended during the election campaign.

The proposed changes to bin emptying arrangements were first promoted by Labour Councillors at the beginning of the year.

They authorised a – largely bogus – consultation exercise about options but failed to report the results of the opinion survey.

The bins petition will now be presented to the next ordinary Council meeting which is scheduled to take place on 16^th July.

Labour U turn on waste collection changes?

Some Labour candidates seem set to repudiate their parties waste collection plans before the Council elections even take place on Thursday.

They have issued a leaflet distancing themselves from proposals which would see grey bins emptied only once every 3 or 4 weeks ,

Labours plans also involve the introduction of a £35/£37 charge for emptying green bins.

The proposals first surfaced at a special working group (http://tinyurl.com/YorkWRG) which was set up in 2012 to address the Council’s faltering recycling performance.

In late 2014 the Council “consulted” on various options for saving £1.5 million on waste collection costs over the next 2 years.

Only two options for savings were offered; a reduced frequency of grey bin emptying and making an annual charge for emptying a green bin (second and subsequent green bins already attracted a £37 a year charge).

Other choices actually involved additional costs for the Council.

click to access Council wb site

The confused nature of the consultation leaflet—which can be viewed on the Council web site at http://rewiringyork.com/2015/01/28/have-your-say-changes-to-public-spaces-roads-and-waste-collections/ – was heavily criticised at the time.

The Council was later to claim that around 11,000 responses had been received. The Council, however, refused to reveal the results of the consultation . No meeting was held to discuss either the responses or a preferred “way forward”.

In the meantime in February the Council (Labour and Greens voting together) approved a budget for the current financial year.

The budget included economies of £4.5 million from what the Council euphemistically refers to as “transformational savings”.

Of these, £1.07 million was to come from street services like waste collection. (http://tinyurl.com/Rewire2 ).

Having been given a hard time on the doorsteps over their plans to cut waste collection in the City (just about the only service that every resident uses in one way of another) it appears that some Labour candidates are now taking to the lifeboats.

Whoever takes over on Thursday will face a budget shortfall of over £4 million.

Unless the Councils vanity projects are abandoned, then the decisions are likely to hit the quality and quantity of street level public services.

Whatever happened to York’s salvage and re-use centre?

Well we know that it was one of the first cuts that Labour made when they took office in 2011.

The project was to have replaced the Beckfield Lane recycling centre but would have offered much more.

Its priority would have been to encourage the re-use of unwanted items. Currently only informal on-line groups like Freecycle address this need.

Only when the re-use option was exhausted would materials have been salvaged. For example, there is a ready market for building materials such as timber, bricks and hard-core.

Not only was the Beckfield Lane site closed but the replacement – which would probably have been located at Harewood Whin – was also scrapped.

In part the decision contributed to the decline in recycling rates in the City and an inexorable rise in Landfill Tax costs.

The £2 million salvage centre would have paid for itself by now.

Sadly many residents resort to dumping items. One armchair has found its way onto a verge on Gale Lane today. Although some of these items are picked up by “rag and bone” men, many have to be removed by the Council.

Dumped mattresses are a particular problem for those lacking transport to get to the remaining 2 civic tips.

The York Council now charges £40 to remove up to 10 bulky waste items

Small wonder that so many residents are petitioning their objections to reduced waste collection frequencies and the prospect of a £35/£37 pa charge for emptying green garden waste bins.

“Save our bins” petition hits 1000 signatures

Call for Council to release results of resident’s opinion poll

Labour and Green Councillors voted through a Council budget for this year which includes a big reduction in waste collection costs.

Only two options for cost reduction were offered to residents in a survey undertaken earlier in the year.

Reduced grey bin emptying frequencies &
£35/£37 pa charge for emptying (all) green (garden waste) bins.

We said at the time that the survey was deeply flawed.

Now the Council has now said that it won’t reveal the results of its survey until after the Council elections on May 7^th.

Labour’s charging plans were leaked last autumn. Not surprisingly neither they or the Greens have been candid about the plans in their election manifestos that are currently being circulated

Copies of the petition for can be downloaded from here

Bins petition – 500 sign in one week as residents face 57% increase in tipping charges

Council let slip £37 a year “tax” on Green Bins to start mid summer

click to enlarge

Over 500 residents have signed our petition opposing Labour plans to reduce bin emptying frequencies and impose an annual charge of £35 or £37 for emptying green, garden waste, bins.

The on line version of the edition is now suspended until after the election but copies of the petition form can be downloaded by clicking here

At a recent Council meeting in response to a question the responsible Cabinet member said,

“Officers from waste services, IT and customer services are working to determine a time frame in which chargeable Green waste collections could be implemented should the Council choose to proceed. It is anticipated that sufficient evidence will be available in the summer of 2015 for the Council to consider this matter”

Labour Councillors fear that many residents will avoid the new charge by putting green waste into grey – residual waste – bins.

Hence the – still secret – move to reduce bin emptying frequencies to once evry 3 or 4 weeks.

Like the proposals to close Lendal Bridge 4 years ago, it is unlikely that Labour will publicise their plans for the future of waste collection in the city until after then Local Elections on May 7^th.

Landfill Tax charges up by 57% in 5 years as York Council recycling effort fades

Meanwhile the Council has admitted that recycling rates have been falling in the City. Landfill Tax charges – paid by residents through their Council Tax bills – have increased.

Landfill Tax payments click to enalrge

Landfill Tax increased by £8 per tonne annually until 2014/15 and by inflation thereafter having reached £80 per tonne.

The Council was warned in 2012 when they closed the Beckfield Lane recycling centre that the decision could have dire consequences for Council taxpayers and the environment.

So it has proved.

Thoresby Road rubbish removed

Council workers have cleared the rubbish from near the flats in Thoresby Road. It had been there for nearly a week.

Some tenants had been storing surplus items on balconies and in communal areas. Following a recent fire, the Council asked for areas to be kept clear.

Unfortunately a promised rubbish wagon did not arrive to coincide with the clear out. Some residents then added to the pile of rubbish

Perfect Storm

Council official blame a series of factors for the problems.

Reduced bin emptying frequencies and the closure of the nearest recycling centre on Beckfield Lane contributed.

Many tenants didn’t have their own transport and the skips provided through the residents association were coming less frequently than in the past.

Even the Councils paid for bulky rubbish removal service only takes certain types of rubbish.

Things look set to get worse as Labour roll out their £35 green bin emptying charge while their policy of emptying grey bins only once every 3 or 4 weeks could produce a “perfect storm” for dumpers.

Residents can sign a petition opposing further reductions to the bins emptying service by clicking here.

The Liberal Democrats have promised, if they are elected to lead the Council again on May 7th, that they will re-introduce ward budgets. In the past these funds have been used to stage recycling days when a convoys of waste vehicles tour the ward removing unwanted items.

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