Ed Davey is again cynically engaged in misdirection prior to an election.

We are neither building on the Fairfield, nor stopping or intending to stop weekly recycling – it simply is not true.

It was Mr Davey’s Liberal Democrats that lengthened an expensive and failing waste contract in August 2013, so that they would not have to change the system going into a local election.

That failed system has costs millions of pounds in disposal costs because, among its many failings, 63 per cent of the contents of landfill bins are recyclable, including food waste, garden waste, paper and cardboard.

The new scheme will allow us to increase the borough’s recycling rate, which has fallen year on year for the past three years under the Liberal Democrats.

By providing a second, separate wheelie bin for paper and card, removing the need for the current cardboard white sack and at least one green box, we are ensuring that the recyclates remain dry – getting paper and cardboard wet meant it had to be sent to landfill.

The last administration spent £1.5m a year sending recyclable material to landfill – a total of £12m.

We are making it easier and simpler to recycle. Surveys done in Kingston and across the UK as a whole show that people say they would recycle more if the containers were larger, or if they had more of them.

A separate bin for paper and card will allow residents to recycle more paper and card, while freeing up space in green boxes for more plastic, tins and glass.

Mr Davey is insulting his constituents’ intelligence when he says they will be confused about the one simple change of glass, plastic and tins being collected one week, and paper and card the next.

After all, you picked up the system fairly quickly when the Lib Dems abolished weekly landfill collections in 2008.

This new scheme also has the benefit of saving residents £4.2m over the sevenyear life of the contract – the equivalent to a 3 per cent increase in council tax.

Much of this is saved in not having to replace expensive waste collection lorries.

But we will also save money where Mr Davey actually says it will cost more.

By providing people with sturdy bins for paper and card, already factored into the contract cost, we will have to provide fewer replacement green boxes.

We currently replace 10,000 a year at a cost of £50,000 – that’s a fifth of Kingston’s households receiving a new box every single year.

The change in the way that recycling is to be sorted, from kerbside sorting to twin streaming, will help prevent health problems for operatives who currently undergo a lot of physical stress and strain, lifting and twisting repeatedly with heavy boxes.

I am shocked the Liberal Democrats began the current contract with this type of recycling collection without any regard for operatives’ health.

Additional benefits of the new system include 33 per cent fewer waste collection lorries on our roads, so less traffic clogging up our residential streets and less pollution.

I am not a fan of the spend and tax and tax again Labour Party, but have a look at what they say about this misdirection on their website at goo.gl/RYpOz5.

Neither Mr Davey nor Lib Dem councillors bothered to contact me or other lead members about recycling or to propose viable alternatives – how much more disingenuous can you be?

Mr Davey has a history of harvesting email addresses for his election campaigns, and this time is no exception.

Do not be taken in.

RICHARD HUDSON
Lead member for infrastructure and contracts Kingston Council