It's time to talk rubbish (From Worcester News)

It's time to talk rubbish

7:24am Monday 15th October 2007 in

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WORCESTER City Council leader Simon Geraghty has called for a united front to shape the future of the city's wheelie bin service.

The scheme has been rolled out across Worcester and he has said now is the time to see if it is working as planned.

Councillor Geraghty has called for a revival of a cross party working group to review the project. The people of Worcester have always been promised that the group, which set the scheme in motion two years ago, would review its success once it was completed.

And it was revealed the group could discuss the possibility of weekly food waste collections.

Coun Geraghty said he had written to Coun Adrian Gregson, the Labour leader, to suggest the group was re-established. He said: "All the areas in Worcester where we planned to introduce wheeled bins, we have done.

"We've implemented the programme and I think it's right we follow up what we said we would do."

Council figures show recycling rates in the city have increased from 16 per cent to more than 30 per cent since the scheme started.

Coun Geraghty said the wheeled bins had been a tremendous success, reducing the amount of waste going to landfill and increasing recycling but government targets had now changed and landfill tax had significantly increased.

He wants the group to see whether the scheme needs modifying and to consider how to address emerging future issues.

"It's right we look again to see minor changes to the scheme and at how the goalposts are moving too," he added.

Coun Geraghty is keen to re-establish cross-party working because he believes waste is too big an issue for party politics.

The move comes after the Labour party raised weekly food waste collections recently, an issue Coun Geraghty said could be discussed.

"I think that group has got to have a mandate to look at all the options. I wouldn't rule anything in or out," he added.