Councillors demand review of Flintshire’s controversial three-weekly bin collection plan

Flintshire Council’s controversial decision to pilot three-weekly bin collections in an area of the county has been ‘called-in’.

Opposition councillors have been granted the opportunity to review the decision of the authority’s ruling Labour cabinet in agreeing the three-weekly bin collection pilot last week, and it will return to scrutiny next week.

Earlier this month, the council’s environment and economy scrutiny committee was presented with a range of options for changing the Waste Strategy in a bid to meet Welsh Government recycling targets.

With the threat of six-figure fines looming over the authority for failing to hit targets – currently 70 per cent recycling and Flintshire having missed previous targets in the past couple of years, members were moved to act.

The cabinet opted to pursue a recommendation chosen by the environment scrutiny committee to pilot a three-weekly bin collection in one part of the county, along with providing more education and communication to residents.

Details of the pilot, such as where in the county it will take place and the resources required to run it have yet to be confirmed, but the idea has proved unpopular enough for half-a-dozen councillors to ask for it to be reviewed.

For a call in to happen, the Chief Officer (Governance) or Head of Democratic Services must receive a request from the chair of the relevant scrutiny committee or at least four members of the council – which has now happened.

Six councillors have endorsed a call-in and they are Connah’s Quay Central Cllr Bernie Attridge, leader of the Independent opposition, Hawarden Aston Cllr Helen Brown (Ind), Connah’s Quay Golftyn Cllr David Richardson (Ind), Buckley Mountain Cllr Carol Ellis (non-aligned), Buckley Bistre East Cllr Richard Jones (Ind), and Llanasa and Trelawnyd Cllr Glyn Banks (Ind).

Their reasons for calling in the decision have been provided in the call-in note which reads;

We consider the decision as foolhardy given that the cost of the pilot is unknown.

The data that could be provided from the pilot has the potential to lack integrity.

The present collection frequency has worked in the past, why change it?

Flintshire Council’s environment and economy scrutiny committee will now meet to discuss and review the decision on Wednesday (February 1).

If the committee is not satisfied with the decision and reasons given for it, it could be taken to a full council meeting to decide whether it should be reversed or not.

By Rory Sheehan – Local Democracy Reporter