Tuesday 1 December 2009

Take A Cash Strapped Council,

make 30 staff redundant to save money, and what do you spend the money on? you employ two 'bin police' to make sure residents are recycling, cost? only a tad under £100,000, bargain! the so-called 'waste advisers' will visit households to check that all recyclable material is going in the right bins, I am sure those sacked will get a warm comforting glow knowing how wisely the Tory-controlled Test Valley Borough Council in Hampshire has spent the money their jobs gave them, Council leader Ian Carr admitted the decision was controversial, but said the move was necessary, 'This is very controversial, but we need to re-ignite the people's desire to recycle,' he said. 'The council's recycling rates have to improve', in the past twenty or more years I have constantly said it so here it goes again, recycling in a first world country does not work if you take into account the costs of land, buildings, equipment, wages and transport costs, it is cheaper to make new glass than melt down old glass if you take the previous costs involved, same as paper, same as metals, only in third world countries does it make sense, my opinion of course but I have yet to see figures to prove me wrong. in fairness to the council they did come up with this excuse, the council said the the £91,000 was part of a £318,000 grant it received from DEFRA between 2005 and 2007 when it introduced alternate weekly collection of rubbish, but forgot to spend during that time! I wonder what other sums of money have been 'forgotten?'

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