Following last week's local elections, the Local Government Association said voting had reflected changes in the national political mood, rather than specifically against those council leaders introducing alternate weekly collections.
 Changes in council leadership in alternate weekly collection areas reflected changing popularity of political parties at a national level, rather than bin campaigns according to the LGA |
However, a handful of councils are now considering the future of their waste collections in the light of changes of political leadership.
In Kirklees, West Yorkshire, Labour councillor Mahmood Akhtar said his party gained seats because of the hard line they took over bringing weekly waste collections back.
He added: “We submitted a petition with 2,000 names at a council meeting last month for weekly waste collections to be re-instated. We will be pursuing this petition at the next meeting on May 23.”
Referendum
In Dartford, Kent, the Conservative-controlled council announced shortly before the local elections that it would be holding a referendum this autumn to gauge public opinion on alternate weekly collections.
The controlling party went on to increase its majority in the elections.
A spokesman told letsrecycle.com that Dartford had decided to ask the public because of the fear that “there would always be blame” from the media attached to councils who introduce fortnightly collections without consulting the electorate.
Dartford's referendum will include a series of yet-to-be-decided questions and a pre-referendum campaign explaining exactly why the council might introduce the system.
The council's Conservative leader Cllr Jeremy Kite said: “This policy is undeliverable and from the people that I have spoken to, they don't want it.
“We know fortnightly collections are unpopular, we know people don't want them so we plan to hold a referendum and present the results to the Government to ask them what we should do next,” he said.
“Confusion”
In some areas, it appears that some of the electorate may have been given confusing messages over the question of fortnightly collections.
In Waverley, Surrey, where the Liberal Democrats lost out to the Conservatives, Cllr Ken Reed claimed that his party had lost out because of confusion over whether the fortnightly system could be easily scrapped.
The Lib Dem councillor said: “It was something the Conservative Party campaigned very strongly on, and while their literature did not say they would return to weekly collections, there was a clear understanding from residents on the doorstep that perhaps it might do. I cannot see how we can return to it.”
Some seats were lost from councils bringing in alternate weekly collections, but councillors believe seats were not lost because of the bin collections.
North Hertfordshire Liberal Democrat councillor Steve Jarvis said: “I don't believe we lost seats because of fortnightly bin collections. We are supporting it but we want to make a few minor changes.”
LGA
Research by the Local Government Association (LGA) suggests the publicity and campaigns by national newspapers against fortnightly collections, in the run up to polling day on May 3, had “no direct correlation” with the election results overall.
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It reported that 23% of the 312 councils which had seats up-for-grabs changed control and for those which had alternate weekly collections in place, 25.7% changed political control.
The LGA said in a statement: “There appears to have been no direct correlation between those councils who have AWC rubbish collection and those who do not in terms of voting swing. The results therefore appear to mirror the overall national election voting picture.”
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