See-through bags to be rubbished
Victoria Morley
28/11/2007
A CONTROVERSIAL scheme to roll out see-through bin bags could be heading straight back to Stockport Council’s waste bin, after furious residents rubbished the plan.
Stockport Council was bombarded with queries from residents deeply concerned about their rights to privacy after the Stockport Express exclusively revealed the plans last week.
And following a meeting of the Environment Scrutiny Committee last Thursday, Labour councillor Philip Harding says the Council are seriously considering pulling the plug on the interim scheme, which will be in place for a year before it is replaced by wheelie bins in 2008.
"It’s not often you see councillors visibly scared but they really are worried this time. They have already faced angry public reaction this week and that’s just in the roll out stages of the plan," said Coun Harding, (pictured above).
Scrutiny committee chair, Coun John Smith, could only confirm yesterday that a full report will be presented at the January meeting to assess whether the blue transparent sacks meet criteria - however he did say the scheme was already effective.
Residents in Marple and Romiley were the first to receive their year’s supply of 60 transparent bin bags this month, with Edgeley scheduled to be the next area to receive theirs next week.
Residents in Offerton, Heald Green and Bramhall will receive bags in the New Year.
Under the new scheme, which the Council claims has been introduced to tackle illegal business waste and to encourage more efficient recycling in Stockport, residents will still be allowed to use black bin bags alongside the blue ones.
But extra blue bags are not available to buy.
Councillor Stuart Bodsworth, executive member for the environment, said: "As with any good project management, the scheme has several points throughout it when practices can be reviewed, but the Council has no plans for a U-turn.
"The blue sack scheme has been introduced as an interim measure until wheelie bins arrive. It’s a change we’ve had to make for a number of reasons. We wanted to resolve the problem of householders not receiving their weekly sack, we had to address concerns the Health and Safety Executive had about bin site collection and we needed to tackle the costly problem of some businesses illegally disposing of their waste in the household collection. We also hope that providing the bag with tabs will allow the public to tie the top and thereby reduce any chance of spillage."
Coun Bodsworth also confirmed that the cost of the blue bags is £30,000 a year for a whole bin round, for example the Marple and High Lane bin round area.
However, furious residents left messages on our website, claiming they had ‘seen straight through’ the Council’s ‘highly invasive’ ‘money-making’ ‘snooping’ exercise with one reader accusing the project of being ‘one step away from a 1984 police-style state’.
Stockport resident Alan Royston also criticised the scheme on the website for being a ‘waste of time’ following the news residents can still use black bags. He said: "Surely this defeats the object of the Council’s exercise with regard to seeing what's inside the bag.
"Quite frankly I feel the whole exercise is farcical."
