Consultations by councils have a terrible reputation and no wonder. Irrespective of what local residents say - councils seem to ignore them. Cheshire East Labour-led administration is no different as it continues not to listen to the public and push through its unpopular agenda.
The latest controversy surrounds bin collections. The council want to change the fortnightly black bin collections to three-weekly. More than 6,200 people responded with nearly 84 per cent opposing the plans. So, what does the council do – it says it “listened” to the feedback but continues to push ahead with its three weekly collections anyway. It also says it will invest in more education and enforcement officers to make sure the wrong rubbish does not go in the wrong bins!
The council claim it needs to save money but with so many things it suggests, there is little or no mention of how much money it will cost to make the apparent cost savings. Has anyone thought the cost of cleaning up fly-tipping, environmental health costs with vermin or how our recycling centres will cope with the additional strain of increased footfall? Then there are the ridiculous costs of the “bin police” and any so-called education for residents.
Residents are fed up. Not just about bins but so many other issues, as highlighted to me very recently in a constituency-wide survey I conducted.
Responses are still coming in (all of which I will be following up) but there seemed to be a pattern of issues raised regarding Knutsford so I invited Cheshire East Chief Executive Rob Polkinghorne to the town to meet with me, to which he kindly agreed. I wanted him to see at first hand the issues about which local residents are concerned.
We began by discussing the council’s handling of the Canute roundabout repairs and the lack of preparation which led to traffic chaos, before telling him residents feel the area is being neglected by the council (as are all the towns and villages within the Tatton constituency which fall under Cheshire East in my opinion). People want to know where their council tax money is being spent – and given we now know it is not on bin collections, it is a fair question.
We discussed the lack of maintenance; weeds in pavements, road signs and traffic islands, unkept verges, overflowing gulleys and increasing numbers of potholes, including sub-standard repairs which require further work at an additional cost to the taxpayer. Mr Polkinghorne agreed repairs were an issue so I’ve asked for a timetable for these issues to be resolved and for him to put pressure on the Labour-administration to stop wasting money – and instead to spend money on these much needed repairs and a regular bin collection!
