In his Budget speech (27.01.12) Leader of Douglas Borough Council, David Christian wholeheartedly backed the joint kerbside collection scheme developed with Braddan Commissioners.
Have the ratepayers of Onchan lost out by the decision to withdraw from the scheme we wonder?
"Green issues have remained to the fore with the Council’s decision to continue operating the kerbside collection service, funding it jointly with Braddan Commissioners from 1st November last year until 31st March this year, after three years’ funding by the Department of Infrastructure ceased on 31st October 2011.
"In support of this a comprehensive review of the Council’s waste management services has been undertaken. The kerbside operation, which currently operates as a stand-alone service, will be fully integrated in the Council’s reformed waste management services structure. As a result, savings will be made and the income obtained from the recyclates will enable the Council to provide, in a shared operation with Braddan Commissioners, a combined refuse and kerbside recycling collection for both Douglas and Braddan at significant cost savings for both authorities. I would hope that this excellent approach to sharing services with a neighbouring authority may serve as a model of integration and cost sharing for other local authorities to adopt to help drive down costs to the ratepayer without compromising the quality of service provision.
I would urge those households in Douglas and Braddan who have yet to sign up to the service to do so as a matter of urgency; the more users it attracts, the greater the long-term cost savings and the less demand will be placed on the rates. Sustainable waste management is the way forward; the more we recycle, the less waste has to be transported to the energy from waste plant, with each visit by one of our collection vehicles attracting, as of 1st April, a ‘gate fee’ of £35 per tonne – on average a cost of £315 per vehicle.
Recycling also generates income for the participating local authorities through sales of items such as newspapers, plastics and aluminium, savings that help reduce the rate burden. Together with our partners in Braddan we are continuing to refine and evaluate the service and look for closer, long-term integration, but meantime, for those who would doubt the efficacy of kerbside collections, I refer them to an independent report undertaken by Waste and Resources Action Programme for the Welsh Assembly that showed the kerbside sort option to – and I quote - ‘consistently outperform other schemes'."
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