With Trafford’s domestic waste collections continuing to suffer from Labour’s mismanagement, Conservatives are calling for a root and branch inquiry to take place to resolve the mess that residents are suffering from.
In 2019, over the summer months, complaints to the Council rose by almost 50% from the previous period due to a shoddy green bin collection service. In October, councillors were inundated with complaints about the bin service when most resident’s collection days changed and refuse workers were sent out on new routes that they were unfamiliar with. Conservatives predicted that there would be chaos and regrettably those predictions have come to be correct.
On Friday 10th of January 2020, there was also the odd spectacle of the Council writing to its own contractor to admit it cannot manage the contractor following round changes it itself agreed and shouldn’t have allowed to happen. The ‘strongly worded letter’ from the Council warns the contractor that it may take back control of waste services, something that the ideologically driven Labour administration at Trafford has been itching to do since seizing power at the Council.
Under the previous Conservative administration, waste collection regularly achieved more than 99% first time collection. This letter from Labour comes too late and Labour is content to provide residents with a poor bin service as they want the waste contract to fail. The contract, if delivered as specified, would be causing no concern. There are mechanisms that the Conservatives built in to the contract to tackle poor performance and levy penalties so that taxpayers are not out of pocket.
Cllr. Dylan Butt, Shadow Executive Member for Environment, Air Quality and Climate Change said “Residents are beyond fed up with the on-going mess from the Council, which has been caused by Labour’s mismanagement. The Conservative Group has no confidence in Cllr. Adshead, the Executive Member for bin collections and is calling for him to do the right thing and step down immediately.”
“We are also calling for an external inquiry to start to look at why this appalling fiasco has been allowed to take place and how to fix it, especially when it was blatantly obvious that crews were unprepared for the new routes. The changes brought in by Labour to the collection rounds have been the key factor in the deterioration of the service. It is a collective failure of the contractor caused by a distinctly poor Labour administration who is trying to wriggle out of their own negligence. Trafford residents deserve better than this appalling service and Conservatives will hold to account those who have failed so spectacularly.”
