What they did in wales, where we are now paying our new bandings, was up them for so many houses, that they only made a 5% increase in the bill on the average house, but the overall revenue to the council went up massivly.
And they still can't empty the bins...........
Rick
Mail on Sunday, 3 April, as in the op.
I have no idea how true it is, my source was The Caterer. I don't have much time for what's in the papers however ...
Mary
The council tax is only a proportion of the council's income. The rest is government grant. So if 'they' want to alter the proportions of these they can and do already.
I believe it was Brussels.
Our council has just finished rolling out it's recycling plan and a total shambles it is too (what else did I expect though). We have wheelie bins so they decided to give everyone a second wheelie bin (at enormous cost) for recyclables. The original plan was to collect the bins on alternate weeks which seemed, to me a least, like a "really good idea (TM)".
It would seem though that some people hug their bins or something and didn't like the idea of rubbish sitting around for 2 weeks. We now have the rubbish collected every week and the recyclables every other week resulting in a 50%+ increase in the cost of collecting rubbish.
I could live with that if they actually made an effort to recycle. What they won't recycle is legion. It basically comes down to tin cans, drinks bottles and paper all of which we recycled anyway. Now we are stuck with using a recycling wheelie bin and our recycling box (for all the stuff the council won't take). Sad as it sounds I think they won't take glass and tin foil etc etc because the sorters might hurt them selves on the sharp edges. Can no one think of a solution to that problem? Is everyone in Government dead from the neck up?
I think you're right.
For years we've had a weekly collection of general (brown) bins and monthly for recyclables in green bins. It seems to work well - except that many householders use them indiscriminately :-(
Ours are emptied into different vehicles.
You might but many people don't. I pick up several cans and plastic bottles in our street daily. I know that some people have never been near a recycling centre except accidentally in supemarket carparks.
Well, you used to recyle it before, you could revert to that :-)
Can you?
Almost everyone, I think,when it comes to common sense. ... :-( But we all knew that didn't we? >
Mary
I did think about doing that as the wheelie bin for recycling would make a nice compost bin or water butt. Having said that though I heard one council was thinking of imposing fines for people that didn't recycle enough. Apparently it was to be based on how much was in your recycling bin not on how much you threw away that could be recycled.
Yep. I don't know for a fact but I imagine at the moment the sorters are separating the rubbish by hand whilst wearing gloves. Unfortunately even armoured gloves can be punctured so while they are sorting by hand we can't recycle glass in bulk. But... Why not give them a short pole with closable hook on the end (I used to have a toy like this as a child). Drop the rubbish on a conveyor belt and let them pick through it with the claw. There is then no need for them to ever get near anything sharp.
Further more I would start a national level research project with substantial Government funding (10 million a year should do it) to create a machine vision and analysis system that can reliably sort rubbish automatically. It sounds far fetched but it's probably not that hard to get it to the stage where is can sort 80% of the rubbish.
The problem is this automatic system will never be implemented while the Government is letting the councils do their own thing. No one council has, or will ever have, the money to develop the system so we are stuck doing it by hand.
No,I meant just the stuff they won't take. You'd still use the supplied bin for approved items. Ours is mainly filled by what I pick up in the street.
It's almost bound to come, to drive home to the reluctant that it's important.
Have you suggested this to your LA? You know you're entitled to go to council meetings?
It's not at all far-fetched, I remember back in the 70s (might have been earlier, wasn't later) when a Blue Peter viewer demonstrated the principle. Later, on Tomorrow's World, a working model was shown. I'm sure it's done somewhere in the world, doesn't need to be researched.
Consumer pressure works wonders ... !
Mary
>
Well, given no taxation without representation?
I'll tell you *exactly* why it failed. Forget the Tory spiel that it was to be fair taxation. It was designed - as all of theirs - to move taxation from the very well off to the poorer. As does all fixed rate taxation - be it VAT or a head tax. That's what they do - and always have. If all you're concerned about is taxing millions a few pounds more to the benefit of a few thousand who save hundreds - or even thousands - it's easy to persuade the middle earner it's for their benefit. Until the crows come home to roost.
The perfect example was my old widowed mother. Lived on her own in the house she'd owned for 50 years. On just an old age state pension.
Under the mature rates system, she got a 100% rebate, so paid nothing. With the poll tax, the maximum rebate was 90%, so she ended up paying more out than under the old rating system. So the *definitive* person who should have benefitted lost out. But the Duke of whatsisname in his palace gained enormously. And my True Blue Tory mother wasn't pleased and never voted for them again. Sense sometimes comes very late in life.
A question I must ask here is..
Though the council is under an obligation to recycle our rubbish, what obligation are we under to meet their requirements to separate our rubbish?
From what I have read in council issued paperwork, they threaten to cancel the collection of your kerbside rubbish and may even be able to fine you for not separating said rubbish.
Anyone answer this please.
Dave
Only one of social responsibility perhaps.
At the moment.
Sounds like a good idea.
Mary
In message , Dave wrote
No problem with that - you just fly tip
If the government and local councils were actually worried about the amount of rubbish people throw out they would make the delivery of junk mail illegal.
Sounds like a late April 1st article from the Mail. Like they publish 365 days of the year.
Oliver couldn't cope with the drop in earnings.
statutory duty to collect domestic refuse, s.75 Environmental Protection Act 1990 IIRC
ability to impose requirements on the way in which householders present refuse for collection, s.76 Environmental Protection Act 1990, again IIRC
Owain
Sorry - misunderstanding correcting. We do as you suggest. It just seemed a shame to waste the plastic making a new bin for something we already did anyway. The compost we make is great for growing vegetables in as well :o)
Not sure it's the right way though. There seems to be a fine / fixed penalty for everything now-a-days. I'm not sure I want to live in a society like that.
I have been considering it. I actually got as far as trying to look up the contact details of the relevant person but the council website is so bad... I think I will have another go.
I have worked in related research fields and it's not a trivial problem but saying that it's probably doable with a human overseer or two to make corrections.
I was over in Germany a few years back when they started their big recycling scheme. As with everything they do it was basically an all or nothing approach (you have just got to love that). Everyone was given 4 bins IIRC for glass, paper, metal and others and all bins in the street were upgraded to four slot bins. No one escaped the recycling not even the camp site we were staying on (community places actually had to further sort the rubbish separating out not only plastic but types of plastic). It certainly seemed to be working but the amount of fly tipping was awful. There was rubbish just dumped everywhere.
I would second a motion to ban junk mail. I try and stop it by opening anything that looks like it has a pre-paid reply envelope in it and just sending that back. They only get charged for the ones that are used. If everyone did it it would double the cost of the mail shot.
He wouldn't have to, they all have other earnings.
Mary
Useful, thanks. Bookmarked.
Mary
>
Indeed. I can't see why you have a spare bin though. Perhaps I haven't been following properly ...
No, but I don't know how you can persuade people to do it voluntarily. Many people seem innately selfish.
...
Do. Then, if they don't take any notice, you can't say that they haven't had the point put.
I'm sure you're right.
Mary
A son had a posting in Germany and he and his wife were very enthusiastic about the primary sorting system. They didn't mention fly tipping and I didn't see any when I visited. I see an awful lot here :-(
YES!
You can subscribe to the mail preference service ...
Actually, just returning the envelope, empty, is a good idea. I'll start today!
Mary
The worst example I have seen of fly tipping is a sheep carcase dumped in a layby. Probably due to the changed DEFRA rules on the disposal of dead farm animals.
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