The Leader of Wokingham Borough Conservatives, Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, has presented a petition of over 1800 residents’ signatures at a Council meeting on Thursday (21.09.23) calling on the Liberal Democrat administration not to cut public litter bins.
This comes following an announcement in July that the Council intended to reduce the number of public litter bins and empty others less frequently along with other cuts to Council services such as grass cutting.
Conservative Councillors challenged the decision-making process and succeeded in temporarily stopping Wokingham Borough Council’s removal of public bins.
Council officers admitted that the administration had not followed proper procedures when ordering the removal of bins, preventing scrutiny of their actions by councillors and residents.
Wokingham Borough’s Opposition Conservative Group criticised the Liberal Democrats’ “policy by Twitter” approach which reduces transparency, and stops debates and votes on Council decisions.
Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, Leader of the Conservative Group, said, “The whole Lib Dem policy has been mismanaged. They have created additional expense and mess by implementing and announcing the decision without any consultation or proper process.
“They also never mentioned any of these plans in their manifesto.
“Again and again the Lib Dems failed to consult with residents and implemented the change, demonstrating a total disregard for the people who voted for them.
“No one wants dog poo bags hanging in the trees and litter on the streets. This will create a mess that will be more expensive to clear up in the long run. This is the wrong decision, a false economy, and residents are clearly saying they want to keep their bins.”
Speech by Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, presenting the petition
“I am speaking to present this petition signed by over 1800 local residents calling on the Borough Council Ruling Liberal group to think again about their plans to remove 170 litter bins.
This change has already caused chaos and additional expense because it was implemented and trumpeted by the Lib Dem Exec member without any consultation or proper decision making.
Local residents are asking you to listen, they know that if you remove bins they will be treated to the view of dog poo bags hanging in the trees and litter on the streets and that the Council will then have more work to clean the place up.
Residents want to have bins in play areas so they can teach their children not to drop litter.
The savings aligned to removing litter bins maybe non existent is the cost of clearing up is factored in. If the council have enough cash to waste on having officers work up a plan to implement on street parking charges whilst claiming in the paper that they have no plans to implement them they should surely be able to SAVE our litter bins.”
