Last year we got Kitchen caddies for waste food and a bundle of biodegradable bags. I feel pretty sure that at the time we were promised a six monthly delivery of replacement bags.
In the spring we got a delivery of new bags.
So far so good We supplemented the free bags with a limited number of bought bags and all was well.
Until now.
I now discover from the council website that there a no more bags from the council and we all have to buy them from supermarkets.

Also, my caddy has fallen apart so I followed the links on the website to ask for a replacement. I got a reply to the effect that there was a issue of one per household and thats it. There are no replacements but again these can be purchased from various shops.

Can anyone explain how this encourages recycling?
How many households will just stop bothering?

Or is this another little cut in what we get for our council tax, death by a thousand cuts?

We all know full well that it is WBC way of cutting services but trying to avoid saying it.
Just do as most others do now put everything including general waste in the black bin one week and then the same in the green bin the next week. That way you get weekly bin collections which is what you were originally paying for.
The Veollia lads say most waste that is intended for recycling goes to landfill anyway?

You sir, are a disgrace. WBC have gone to great pains to give us the facilities we need to solve the issue of man on the planet earth and you have failed to use them. No wonder we are doomed as a race and I think that your final line has no foundation in truth. Our council would not lie to us.

Would I be brave enough to suggest that they would? I don't wish to be Kirby'd!

You Sir, are becoming vexatious! Stop it, we know where you live.

Signed

NTC

Yes but they can't take my allotment away, I don't have one! They have tried to take my freedom of speech away, they are very near to succeeding? They have taken nearly half of Newbury and given it away for a pound? They have taken my tax money and given it to some consultant to pay for a report on cracks in Viccy park and then won't reveal what is in the report. I could go on and on but wont.

The only thing I want them to take away is my refuse weekly, which I pay for, but they Won't!

I think the statement of "You don't understand how Politics works" is correct!

I am disgusted the council cut our bin collections but make us all feel a bit better with green bins and kitchen caddies. Once we have got used to this make us pay for the bags - we are out of pocket (what a surprise !)

We don't use the bags, they are useless, as is the caddy.

Not had a problem with either.

Never mind about free speech, someone should take your question mark key away for repeated use in sentences that aren't questions.

But I like them and they look pretty - it also gets a response????

Agreed.

agreed. again.

the bags split open when you try to detach them from the roll. Lakeland do a much nicer caddy and the bags work. Ditch the freebie. (responsibly obviously!)

My caddie was eventually chucked. Because of the smell I kept it outside. It didn't last long so I chucked it. It ended up being a waste of time.


By the way the bags you got were for a limited amount of time. After that you were supposed to buy your own.

Would not put general waste in the green bin but can things like potato peelings go in without a bag?

Yes, the earlier comment amazed me, if true. I didn't think "most people" were that anti-social.

Who are the most people on here you speak of?

All our green waste goes in the green bin 'sans sac'.

I refer the Honorable Member to Post #2 given earlier.

I was quoting the phrase "most people" used in that post.

Edit: in fact I must have misread - it says "most others". Unless I didn't misread and it's been edited since.

I've never had a kitchen caddy, and anyone who lives in an apartment is surely in the same boat? The big question is what effect this development will have on recycling in the district?

What development?

A tacky miniscule cheap plastic pointless recycling receptacle that is supposed to replace weekly general waste collections?

Plus the fact that said tacky miniscule cheap plastic pointless recycling receptacle is non-replaceable upon loss or breakage and that it's consumables have to be purchased after the initial supply has been used.

And it also hid the fact that the council have vastly reduced the service but are still charging the same amount of tax.
All hidden under the guise of going green.

Taxpayers were asked would they like to be able to recycle more? No mention of two weekly general waste collection though, even though this was the major part to the change in policy.

Oh, I thought the 'development' would be something new, not a year old.

This one of the councils list of deceits is still quite young to some of us and will not be forgotten just yet!

Surely what it means is that less of your cash is spent collecting waste, so more can be used on more worthwhile expenditure.

Such as?

anything more worthwhile than popping round to Costco towers once a week to empty a half full bin. Practically anything else the council does in fact. Take your pick.

Now if it were only my bin and me complaining, how do you know it is half empty not more stalking, then I may perhaps agree with you but...... :rolleyes

Okay, so it is you & two other serial moaners.

There are four of us in our house & our bin is only half full each week, in fact some weeks there is hardly anything in it at all. I figured that we are fairly average in our waste production. No stalking required.

Serial moaners? So anyone who does not agree with Dannyboy - the Supreme Leaders main henchman must be in the wrong then? I am sure there are even some people who have dared mention to your beloved council that there was no consultation or mention of two weekly general waste collection but of course will not mention it on this forum because they know the response they will receive from the likes of you know who.

So anyone with more than four in the household and hav perhaps a different lifestyle than yours should alter their ways to suit your beloved council or what are you trying to say?

I would still like to know exactly what the council have spent the money saved by this policy on. Also what services have been improved because of it as suggested by your knowledgeable self? yes, you may consult with the Supreme Leader before answering!

You are one of only a few who post on here I'd class as a serial moaner.

I have no idea who the 'Supreme Leader' is - Diana Ross maybe?

I don't remember any council ever consulting about waste collection. Why should WBC be any different?

I'm not beloved of the council - they do a job which has to be done. They do it well IMHO.

Are you implying that this forum isn't entirely open?

I'm saying that the average hopushold only produces half a black bin of waste a week.

I never said anything would be improved, but that cost savings in waste collection would mean other services would not have to be cut.

You know very well who your Supreme Leader is - that chap who you bow to every day is the clue.

Our so called Council assured me that they carried out a consultation on recycling - but when push come to shove they admitted there was no mention of two weekly general waste collection in the consultation documents - strange when this was the most important change.

Your opinion is yours and my opinion is mine is it any less valid than yours - my mistrust of the council, and many others, is they are never open and transparent and try to cover up mistakes rather than admitting them. The way that some taxpayers have been, and still are treated, is abysmal.

No not implying it is not open just that those who do not, shall we say, have the same thoughts as yourself and the council are not made welcome and it is made plain from their first posting this is so. Some are not as thick skinned as myself.

Half a black bin of waste per week - statistics to prove perhaps would be useful. If there were still weekly refuse collection then you would not have to put your bin out - well done - until then others who have different lifestyles and numbers in their household would still be catered for - or is it the usual I am all right Jack?

So again then; what services have not been cut or have not been cut so much because of the savings made by fortnightly bin collections - again you may consult the Supreme Leader?

It stands to reason, given a finite budget, if cash can be savd in one area, it can be spent in another.

What I don't understand is that if your black or green wheelie bin is taken or lost somehow it is replaced within the next couple of days without question (at I don't know what cost) yet the little cheap plastic food waste bin cannot be.

But has cash actually been saved by this? Ask the chaps who collect the green waste and thy will inform you that they are hardly collecting anything from the green bins. Yet people are requesting they empty the black bins. Or has Veolia's charges increased? Whatever the circumstances why did the council not mention or seek approval for fortnightly general waste collection in their so called consultation papers. Again I fear it is because they already new the answer they would get and they did not want that answer ergo do not ask the question. So much for openness and transparency from your local councils.

I ask again how much money has been saved by the fortnightly collection of general waste? Again you may consult the Supreme Leader.

To answer your questions,

some, no, no need, some, she's out.

Thanks for supplying the statistics - usual council type answer in the usual council type speak when they want to withhold information that they do not want disclosed. The Supreme Leader will be proud of you tomorrow -Well Done!

Sorry you don't like my answers. Maybe if you understood the questions.

The kitchen caddy are not fit for purpose but they are ideal for WBC as they are a 1 time issue and they will no longer issue the biodegradable bags, also the know that they are easily broken create a health hazard so people will stop using them, but because they have been issued they can get away with saying that they still have a weekly food waste collection and they refuse to take up the governments offer for a proper weekly collection as it might cost them money. How many of these http://www.westberks.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.a...d=21443&p=0 have they broken or are broken on a regular basis

Usual Council clap-trap. Not even measurable actions.

I did actually like your council type answer but unfortunately it does nothing to back up your statement that it makes money available to be spent on other services. I was requesting the information what other services have benefited from these so called savings you have mentioned - or are you able to confirm you are only assuming this is the case and you have no evidence that this is a fact?

Why would I have any finite facts?

Why not go ask the council?

Simply because you posted it as if it was a fact and I have requested the information that you implied you knew.
Of course it would have saved a lot of time if you had not posted or if you did post admit you were guessing (not for the first time) but typical council type won't admit to making an error?

Of course I assumed you would have these facts to hand being so close to the Supreme Leader and save me asking the council and risk being declared vexatious.

The irony here of course that Cllr Cole, wearing her Chieveley Interest hat did not want
the recycling/burning facility on her domain.
The alleged earlier consultation as referred to here was a real fraud, as the major outcome (as also posted here) was not mentioned ie to reduce general waste collections by 50%.

If they had been open about that up front some may well have voted (in survey) to accept, but I'm confident majority wouldn't.

And of course that nice Mr Pickles then came up with a scheme enabling Councils on fortnightly collection regime to be funded (in short term) to reinstate.

WBC refused even to apply, as it wasn't guaranteed for ever as it were.
Our badger gassing MP strangely silent on issue and clearly disagrees with Plain Talking Yorkshireman/Minister of Sense, Pickles.

Yet for parts of year WBC are being wasteful when they send round those dustcarts for Green waste, when there is none.
Would be better employed collecting general waste if they're coming round surely, rather than going back only partly full!
And of course others have reported about it all being mixed togther in some cases at end of day
This is all driven by fanatics in Brussels and their various green targets/ large cost/tax hikes re landfill (Driving up energy costs as an aside), yet some of Europe retains daily waste collections; go figure.

It's all moot anyway as Dannyboy doesn't have enough general waste to warrant weekly general waste collection.
Perhaps you should alter your life style to match his, not sure you would appreciate the obsequious genuflecting daily to the Supreme Leader though, I am sure he will inform you how to go about it if he has the time?

You don't half post some utter crap.

If a service is altered so that less is done it is bleedin obvious it is going to cost less.