Yesterday the postman brought me the near-700 page report for Thursday’s infrastructure services committee. On page 526 council officers are recommending axing Newtonhill’s weekly garden waste service, which is provided for four hours by a bin lorry in the Coastal Park.
Meanwhile officers recommend that six communities are added to the list of garden waste collection points, to make a total of 11.
I agree that the scheme should be widened so that more green waste is collected and recycled as compost.
But I do not agree that Newtonhill and St Cyrus should be dropped, as recommended. And that is what I will be arguing. It is counter-intuitive.
Officers say that Newtonhill and St Cyrus do not meet new criteria is that settlements which receive the service have more than 400 domestic properties and are more than seven miles from a recycling centre. In our case that’s Badentoy – which is 3.6 miles from Newtonhill. But why should Newtonhill be punished because we happen to be relatively close to Portlethen?
The service is provided in the village on Saturday mornings during the summer and is well supported. There is nearly always someone at the bin lorry. You would not believe the volume of clippings that came out of a Fiat 500’s boot yesterday!
The change is part of a wider report on how our rubbish is collected so that the 43% recycling rate in increased. Too much recyclable material is going to landfill. The recommendation is that this can be achieved by providing residents with a smaller landfill bin which would be emptied less often. Meanwhile paper/cardboard would be collected separately from other recyclable materials such as plastics, metals (including cans), and cartons.
At this stage councillors are being asked to agree that in September there is a public consultation on the proposed waste strategy including whether there is a three-week or four-week cycle of kerbside collection services. Food waste would still be collected every week.
The report also recommends that the opening hours and service for all 13 recycling centres would be standardised, with the exception of Alford and Portlethen. The opening hours at both would be 9.30am until 4.30pm Thursday to Monday. Other recycling centres such as Stonehaven would be open seven days a week from 9am to 5pm, with a Tuesday opening until 8pm from April to October. Officers say that Alford and Portlethen do not justify the longer opening hours because of either the close proximity of other recycling centres or size of the population.
To sum up, I hope that residents will take part in the consultation (should councillors agree on Thursday) to make their views known.
If you wish to read the report, click on this link and go to Item 14 on the agenda: http://committees.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/committees.aspx?commid=495&meetid=19015