Changes to Bin Collections

The City Council is changing the bin collection days for the whole city. Those areas shown in Blue in the map above will have their days on Monday and those in Orange on a Tuesday.

The changes will coincide with the introduction of a new doorstep collection of glass. This new service is funded by the government (see link to earlier article about the bid to government) to improve recycling whilst keeping the our weekly residual waste bin collections.

The changes will undoubtedly mean some teething problems and missed collections so please let me know if your bin is missed and you need me to speak to the council. 

However I think the changes are positive. The council has written to households and enclosed a sticker with your bin day on it. It is worth sticking this on your bin. Hopefully going forward when new people move into the area they will immediately know what day their collections are due. With lots of rented properties and student households in Freemantle Ward we do have a problem with new people not always knowing when to put their bins out. My only concern is that that having whole areas done on the same day may lead to bin lorries filling all the local streets causing traffic congestion. However hopefully this won't prove to be an issue. 

Conservatives Oppose Labour Plans to Charge for Green Waste Collections

Local Conservatives are fighting Labour plans to charge up to £55 a year for green waste collections in Southampton, a service which was previously free.

Council officers have warned the Labour Administration that their charges will hit recycling rates in the city; with an estimated 3,000 tonnes of previously recycled garden waste now either going to landfill or incineration. It is thought that 25,000 household which previously used the free garden sack service will not now sign up to the new charges, reducing Southampton recycling rates by 3%.

Labour’s plans come just months after an announcement by the government that the city will receiving funding to introduce a new doorstep glass collection. Labour’s changes to green waste collections will however will more than wipe out the extra recycling this will produce. So despite winning millions of pounds from the government to improve recycling Labour will ensure that recycling in the city goes backwards.

The extra charges come on top of Labour’s increase in council tax, their extra council tax charges for pensioners and their introduction of new residents parking charges. Many residents now face bills of more than £200 a year extra.

The changes will mean residents who want to continue to have their garden waste collected by the council will have to endure a 3rd wheelie bin outside their house as the old green sacks are withdrawn.

Labour’s plans also are a slap in the face for city refuse collections who Labour along with Labour activists in the trade unions encouraged to strike last year. The much reduced service will now mean many workers will lose their jobs.

Labour Budget Will Hit Freemantle Ward Hard

As a local councillor representing the Freemantle Ward I was extremely disappointed and angered to read the budget plans of the new Labour Administration. Many of the cuts and hikes in charges will disproportionately hit those that I am elected to represent.

Labour came into office full of promises and as predicted, one by one they are breaking them. They immediately u-turned on their pledge to keep Oaklands Pool open. They promised to invest more in SureStart and they are cutting £1m a year from this service. They promised to spend more on libraries, yet they are slashing opening hours, bringing local libraries to the verge of closure. Shirley Library is having its hours cut by 15 hours a week. Pensioners are having their council tax raised by 12%, despite a last minute pre election promise by Cllr Richard Williams not to do this. Even the weekly bin collection was due to be axed and it was only spared because of a grant from the Government.

A 35% reduction in street cleaning in local roads will mean lots of more litter. Local residents associations are fighting an ongoing battle to keep the area clean, with regular litter picks and this will come as a real slap in the face to many people. I am very worried about the cuts to the upkeep of local parks. We already have problems with drinking in Lake Park and cans and glass left behind as well as the ongoing problem of dog fouling. We have more and more young families in Freemantle and keeping the local parks clean, tidy and safe is essential.

Parking is one of the biggest problems faced by residents in Freemantle Ward. I have fought for a long time to stop new charges coming in for first permits in residents’ parking zones. Labour tried to bring in charges last time they were in power and now they are back they are quick to charge residents to park. Worse still this doesn’t even guarantee residents a space in their road. Residents’ Parking enforcement stops at 6pm so many residents will end up paying for permits and much of the time they will be worthless. Labour plans to introduce on street parking charges in the evenings in the city centre will mean more workers parking their cars in local roads after 6pm, making it even harder for residents to park. Also charging people to park when they are shopping in Shirley will hit local businesses hard, damaging trade and costing jobs, at a time when everyone is struggling.

Labour have not thought through their proposals. They were elected with no plan and no vision for the city and now residents are suffering the consequences.

Conservatives Save The Weekly Bin Collections

Local Conservatives have saved the weekly bin collections in Southampton, despite Labour's best efforts to axe the service! 

Labour announced earlier this month that the weekly bin collections would go if a bid submitted to government by the previous Conservative Council was unsuccessful and have put a dozen bin men on notice of redundancy. This was despite their last minute pre-election pledge not to cut the bins. 

Conservatives have been lobbying the government over recent months to provide extra funds for the city which will not only protect the weekly bins but also provide the money for a new, FREE doorstep collection of glass. We have heard today that the Secretary of State for Local Government, Eric Pickles MP, has agreed the funds and saved Southampton's bin service from planned Labour cuts. 

Labour To Axe Weekly Bin Collections

Many residents will remember our pre-election warning about the weekly bin collection being scrapped by Labour.

Labour put out leaflets just days before the May elections, promising to keep the bins weekly. Labour knew the full financial situation of the Council when making this and their other promises.

Labour yesterday broke their bins promise by revealing their plans to end the weekly bin collection. This is a cynical and calculated betrayal of local people who believed in Labour and their promises. 

Despite being in power for less than 7 months, Labour's legacy in Southampton is already one of lies and broken promises. 

On behalf of the residents who value their weekly bin collection and do not want a permanent stinking mess on their doorstep we are now calling on Labour to reverse this crazy decision and stick to their pre-election pledge.

Weekly Bin Collections Must Stay

Local Conservatives are committed to keeping the weekly bin collections and want to see more recycling in the city. In our manifesto we pledged to keep residual waste bin collections weekly and before the May elections we submitted a multi million pound bid to the government for extra money to fund a new FREE kerbside glass collection service.

By contrast, Labour have refused to rule out axing the weekly bin collections. As recently as September, Labour said publicly that the service might be cut despite their last minute pre election pledge. 

I am lobbying the Secretary of State for Local Government, Eric Pickles, to provide the kerbside glass money to Southampton City Council.

Operation Spring Clean

Southampton Conservatives have launched Operation Spring Clean, a major exercise to clean up the city ahead of the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic Torch coming to Southampton. The city wide clean up will also deal with the after affects of the Labour sponsored bin strikes last year.

The clean is now well under way and includes the following:

• A major clean up of the city’s main gateways, arterial routes and link roads including jet washing of street furniture, directional signage and utility boxes and the removal of litter and graffiti.
• The cleaning of gum and grime from areas of pavement and precinct along the QE2 mile.
• The removal of litter and debris from ‘hard to reach’ areas such as busy traffic junctions, islands and central reservations, with most of this work programmed from sunrise on Sunday mornings to minimise traffic disruption.

Full details can be found HERE on the City Council's website.

The following roads in Freemantle have just recently been swept and we are getting good feedback from residents:

Albany Road, Dyer Road, Firgrove Road, Grove Road, Nelson Road, Nightingale Road, Trafalgar Road, Wolseley Road.

As your councillors, Michael Ball, Brian Parnell and I are also busy reporting problems in the area, such as over flowing bins outside some rented properties (like this one pictured to the right), buildings waste and materials that have been left in driveways and fly tipping on the pavement. 

Please get in touch if we can help or visit the fixmystreet website.

Labour Plans to Scrap the Weekly Bin Collections

Cllr Michael Ball, the Conservative Candidate for Freemantle promises to protect the weekly bin collections & to work to raise recycling

The front page of today's Southern Daily Echo features plans by Southampton's Labour group to scrap weekly bin collections if they win the local elections in May.

I have long campaigned to keep the weekly collections in Southampton and as a Freemantle Ward councillor I know they are essential to many of the residents I represent. Bi Weekly collections have been implemented in some parts of the country but in cities like Southampton and areas like Freemantle it simply wouldn't work. Many of my constituents live in terraced housing with very small front gardens. Often the wheelie bins are stored just outside the front door and the prospect of having the bins left there stinking for 2 weeks does not bear thinking about.

After seeing the effects of the Labour backed bin strikes last summer, the last thing we want next is cuts to our bin collection services. It also seems like a kick in the teeth from Labour; first encouraging the bin strikes and now proposing that 1 in 10 bin men be axed.

Locally the Conservatives are committed to the weekly collections and we have submitted a bid to government to look at new ways to improve the waste collection service. If successful this bid will mean we will have the funds to introduce a new door step collection of glass.

Labour Behind Council Strikes

Labour Councillors and Labour Activists in the trade unions have been working together to disrupt services and cause misery for Southampton residents.
 
Last summer Labour even went as far as supporting the strikes that threatened to damage the port and disrupt the local economy.

As recently as the February Council Meeting Labour were holding rallies with the unions and backing further disruption in the city. Labour activists in the unions have said that intend to try and disrupt the opening of the city's new Sea City Museum on 10th April, coinciding with the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, a commemorative day and a day when the media will be focused on Southampton.

Labour's behaviour has been disgraceful and they have made it very clear that they put their own narrow political interests ahead of the city and local residents.

Further details of how Labour and the unions have been working together to try to wreck Southampton can be found HERE.

Southampton Conservatives Launch 2012 Manifesto

Southampton’s Conservative Councillors today launched our Manifesto for the local elections in May 2012. We have published the document on our website, (CLICK HERE) and you can also download the document as a pdf. We hope that this will be of interest to you and we would welcome any comments or thoughts that you have. You can feedback to us on this email or via the website.

This election will be crucial for Southampton and residents will have a clear choice about what sort of council they want and what sort of political leadership they want for the city.

Despite the enormous challenge of having to find £75m of savings between 2010 and 2014, Southampton Conservatives are committed to doing everything possible to protect front line services, to keep costs down for local residents and to continue to move the city forward and bring in business and jobs.

We are ensuring that important front line services are maintained, keeping OPEN all our Sure Start centres, libraries and leisure centres and protecting the weekly bin collections and budgets for looking after vulnerable residents and repairing the roads and pavements.

We will freeze Council Tax for a second year running and avoid hiking up charges for council services like parking charges and adult social care charges.

We are continuing to invest in the city’s public realm and infrastructure and despite the gloomy financial outlook nationally we are attracting businesses and jobs to the city.

We are cutting out waste in the council and reducing back office costs. We have cut the numbers of directors at the council in half and have reduced the numbers of senior managers by a quarter. At the same time we are protecting jobs at the front line so they can deliver important services to the public.

The Conservatives have been in office in Southampton since 2008 (with a period of minority administration in 2007) and we have stuck to ALL the promises we made to Southampton residents. We have done what we said we would do, we have been honest with residents and we have dealt with the significant challenges the city faces in a responsible and robust way. We have not made promises we could not keep and we do not intend to do so now. However with key elections in May it is important that we set out our new commitments to the city as we ask residents to vote for us again, to run the city until the next set of local elections in 2014. This document is a manifesto for 2012 – 2014 and it is Our Contract with Southampton.

Audio Interview on Southampton Strikes

Interview with Portswood.info on industrial action (recorded Saturday 2nd July). Click HERE to see the full article on Portswood.info.




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Questions & Answers On Southampton's Bin Strikes

A useful website with Questions and Answers for residents on the current strikes in Southampton.

Conservatives Secure Key Changes To City Budget

Yesterday afternoon the City Council set its budget for the coming year.

I am really pleased that Conservative Councillors were able to successfully lobby for changes to improve the budget.

Some of the key concessions achieved by the Conservatives were:

1. Keeping the weekly bin collection.
2. Preventing the introduction of night time car parking charges.
3. Keeping Cobbett Road Library open.
4. Preventing planned cuts to vital children's social services.

We were also able to presuade the Council to reduce the council tax increase from 3.5% to 3.3%.

These things were funded by bureaucracy savings.

During the budget debate Labour Councillors were exposed over their U-Turn on providing free buses across Hampshire for pensioners and over their plans to close Oaklands swimming pool.