The council’s decision on the introduction of a new system of waste collection in Kingston was taken behind closed doors, so the full financial details are deemed too secret for us, mere electorates.

What we do know, however, is that when the Liberal Democrats are on shaky ground, they repeat their points ad nauseam in the hope that a distortion will transmogrify into a truth if repeated with sufficient frequency.

So it is with waste disposal.

Recycling bins overflow with soggy Liberal Democrat pamphlets maintaining that the Conservatives are axing recycling, although Edward Davey did concede in a letter to St James ward electors that they would still be able to put their vegetables in a weekly collection – presumably the Liberal Democrats had identified an excess of carnivorous electors.

Even the Comet’s new year letters page was bursting with misplaced political indignation.

Mr Davey claimed that the current system could be retained and money could still be saved, so I wrote to him asking him to email me the costings that lay behind his assertion before the council meeting.

Needless to say, a reply was received well after the meeting, claiming he believed money could be saved by introducing a container for paper and keeping weekly collections, and that the Tories should have costed this option.

As an opposition, the Liberal Democrats had not seen fit to ask about this. Surely this is their role as opposition? A question is certainly cheaper than flooding letter-boxes.

The motion put forward by the Liberal Democrats at the meeting did not mention any alternative costing.

I can only assume that there has been no alternative financial modelling by the Liberal Democrats, and the claim that the present system can continue as it is and save money is nothing more than the usual Liberal Democrat political fiction.

Anyone who reads the council papers on waste disposal will have realised that changes have to take place because the bespoke lorries are reaching the end of their life and have to be replaced.

The lorries house someone who sorts out the materials to be recycled for us.

Are the Liberal Democrats really saying we are so stupid we cannot discern what is glass and tin and what is paper, and put them in separate boxes?

Will Mr Davey’s breakfast be spoilt by anxiety over whether his cereals are in a tin or a cardboard container?

Yes, there may be some places where an extra container for paper might present a difficulty, but I do not recognise a Kingston where the majority of houses have no space outside the front door, as was suggested.

The proposals suggest £600,000 saving a year.

That would more than pay for our Labour councillor’s proposal for a living wage for 539 council employees, who are paid less than a living wage in a borough with the highest council tax in London, and where there are far too few affordable houses and flats.

Or do they think the right not to sort our rubbish and have a full weekly collection is more important than paying the people our council employs a living wage?

LAURIE SOUTH
Kingston & Surbiton Labour Party

 



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