The great plastics and cardboard recycling con - yes you can have it, no you can't

YOU may have heard that I recently seconded a call-in of a decision to continue with plastics and cardboard recycling trials.
A call-in is a process where a decision by the Executive or one of its members can be put on hold for a short time while it is challenged and looked at again to ensure the right decision has been made.
The call-in was proposed by Councillor Tony McMahon, who is the Conservative shadow executive member for environmental services and who is also standing for election to Somerset County Council.
However, we withdrew the call-in after receiving an explanation and more information from one of our most senior officers about what was actually intended.
It was disappointing to note that the Executive member himself did not respond – and interesting to note that it was the officer who wrote up the decision for him as he seemed unable to do it himself.
Despite what some may say, this was not a Conservative attempt to have the trials withdrawn.
Far from it.
In fact, we were anxious to ensure the Lib Dems kept to their word this time and actually delivered to the public what they promised during the election campaign.
We are now almost two years on from the 2007 elections and I clearly recall how the Lib Dems promised they would give people plastics and cardboard recycling – mind you, so did the Conservatives.
I recall speaking with one couple in Stapley who were already taking their plastics and cardboard to the recycling centre as they wanted to do their bit as good citizens and not wait until the council got around to it.
I told them that on this particular manifesto issue there was not a lot to separate the two parties, it was just that the Conservatives would do it quicker.
How right I have proven to be.
Two years on, and all that has happened is that the Lib Dems have started some trial collection rounds.
Even that decision took 12 months to reach and, the cynics will note, was finally taken when the Lib Dems faced a difficult by-election campaign in Comeytrowe - which, of course, just happened to be one of the first areas to be given the trial collections.
A lesson in ‘how to win votes and influence people’.
Fine for the residents of Comeytrowe, but not so good for everybody else, who, like myself, has to stack up the plastic bottles and cardboard in carrier bags in the garage until there is enough to lay down the back seats of the car and take it out to the Poole recycling centre.
Anyway, the point is that we are now in a situation where both the Executive and the Full Council have voted to ‘phase in’ the full roll-out of plastics and cardboard recycling across Taunton Deane this financial year.
Naturally, like me, you will no doubt be looking forward to receiving this service before 31st March next year.
So, when Councillor McMahon and I saw the Executive member’s decision to continue the trials this year until such time as the Executive takes a decision on the full roll-out to all properties, alarm bells started ringing.
It seemed they were only going to do the trials and nothing else this year - hence the call-in was triggered.
Now, I find that is not the case.
It was a badly-worded decision and one which lacked any explanation for councillors like myself who are battling to provide the best possible service to the people we represent.
It turns out the Lib Dems simply made a mess of the decision to introduce the trials, because they only approved them until 31st March this year and the trials would have been stopped, leaving people with nothing until the ‘phasing in’ began.
It also turns out that the talk of phasing in plastics and cardboard recycling is little better than a ‘con’.
All they are going to do is expand the collections this year to another 2,000 households on top of the 3,000 who already receive them.
By the end of the financial year, they hope - and the emphasis is on the word hope – to include a total of 20,000 households.
Now, given that there are 43,000 households in Taunton Deane, you can see that more than half of all households will not be getting the plastics and cardboard recycling service which they thought had been promised them.
The so-called promise made by the Lib Dems means the majority of households in the Deane - more than 50 per cent of them in total - could be waiting until 31st March 2011.
And, of course, in May, 2011, we will be having another round of Deane council elections which I am sure will focus the minds of the Lib Dems who will be desperate to ensure the service is delivered beforehand so they can tell you how good they are when they are asking for your votes.

Highway maintenance budgets cut despite roads getting worse

IT is official - Somerset’s roads are getting worse under the Liberal Democrats.
County Council highways officials have stated in official reports that roads in the county are deteriorating fast.
Only months after the County Hall Lib Dems slashed their highways maintenance budgets, their own officers have admitted that the number of safety defects has increased significantly.
They also admit the condition of both major and minor roads across the county has been deteriorating.
Councillor Anthony Trollope-Bellew, who is the Conservative county council group spokesman on highways, said: “It gives me no pleasure to say I am not surprised to hear this news.
“I warned the Lib Dems that any cuts to these essential budgets would lead to a worsening in road condition and misery for road users, and this is exactly what has happened.”
Councillor Ken Maddock, the leader of the county council Conservative group, said: “Yet again, another Lib Dem cut hits a vital service and has a real impact on the lives of the people of Somerset.
“The Lib Dems have constantly denied that Somerset’s roads are getting worse, even though everybody else in Somerset knows how bad they have become.
“But now that their officers have painted such a bleak, honest picture of their condition, I hope that the Lib Dems will finally sit up and take action.
“Conservatives will rescue our roads and make Somerset a better place to live.”

• The photographs show some examples of how bad Somerset’s roads are becoming.
  

Our pavements are officially the worst in the Westcountry

PAVEMENTS in Somerset are the worst in the Westcountry - and that is official.
My Conservative colleagues at County Hall have reacted with shock after seeing the latest performance figures showing that Lib Dem Somerset’s pavements are the worst of any council in the South West.
A report from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) collated data from the Audit Commission which showed the condition of Somerset’s pavements is almost twice as bad as the national average.
Somerset was also placed bottom of the list for South West local authorities.
CSP figures show that 42 per cent of pavements in Somerset are in need of repair, almost twice the average for the whole country.
The situation nationally has only marginally improved since last year, when the CSP called on local authorities to urgently address the problem of broken pavements, which can increase the risk of falls, especially for older people.
No wonder my county Conservative colleagues were so dismayed by the news of Somerset’s failings.
The CSP report showed that almost half of all footways in the county are in need of repair.
The practical reality of the situation is that every day, thousands of Somerset residents have to take their lives into their own hands just by walking down the street.
This needs action before any more residents injure themselves.
We must take action as a matter of urgency to put this right.
If we leave it, then it will only end up costing the county council - that means us council taxpayers - more in the long-run.
There will be more injuries, more claims against the council, and more misery for local people.
We deserve better.
The CSP wants councils such as Somerset to make 2009 the year for carrying out repairs to broken and uneven pavements, which will improve safety and help to protect people from unnecessary falls.
Lynn Sutcliffe, a spokeswoman for CSP and vice-chairman of AGILE (Chartered Physiotherapists working with Older People), said: “Once an older person has fallen, it can seriously affect their physical and emotional wellbeing.
“It can make them anxious and limit their enjoyment of activities they previously enjoyed.
“Walking on uneven ground requires older people to be fit and strong, and able to withstand disturbances to their balance.
“If local authorities act sooner rather than later to fix the pavements that need repair, many unnecessary falls could be avoided.”
The subject of broken pavements was the theme of National Falls Awareness Day 2008, run by Help the Aged.
The charity carried out research showing that 2,300 older people fall on broken pavements every day and nearly 80,000 of those who have fallen each year are subsequently afraid to leave the house.
Pamela Holmes, Help the Aged healthy ageing manager, said: “These new figures released by the CSP show that broken and damaged pavements still represent a significant problem for older people with mobility problems.
“Our own research suggested that councils are caught in a vicious circle.
“On the one hand they are required to sit on large sums of money to cover legal fees and compensation, and on the other they are cash-strapped when it comes to repairing pavements that may cause falls in the first place.
“It is vital that councils invest more money in keeping public walkways safe, as falls are a leading cause of death for over-75s and at the very least, one fall can shatter an older person’s physical and mental well-being.”
Mark Formosa, who is the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Taunton Deane, has already helped to collect a large petition in Taunton which complains about the state of some pavements in the county town.
Mark has presented the petition to the county council because it is responsible for maintaining the footways.

• The photographs show the state of some pavements in Taunton, and also Mark Formosa with two residents with whom he worked to collect a petition protesting at how the county council was failing to properly maintain the pavements.

Conservatives freeze Taunton Deane council tax bills

SOME good news at last for the Deane's council tax payers after the doom of gloom of the recession setting in.
Your council tax bill from the Deane council has been frozen this year and there will be no increase in it.
You can thank the Conservatives for this achievement, even though we are only the opposition group.
Our group leader, Councillor John Williams, together with our shadow executive members produced an alternative budget to the one which the Lib Dems put forward.
While the Lib Dems tried to claim they were going to have the lowest increase in Somerset at 2.9 per cent - later revised down to 2.7 per cent when they discovered it was not the lowest – the Conservatives produced a budget which showed no increase at all.
So, as we find happens quite often, the Lib Dems quickly plagiarised the Conservative budget and adopted the innovative measures we proposed for raising additional funds to pay for services.
Then, they agreed a budget which showed no increase in the Deane’s share of the council tax precept.
Unfortunately, you may not notice it as the County Council, which is also run by the Lib Dems, have continued to put up their council tax precept, and so have the Police.
In fact, the County Hall Lib Dems have more than DOUBLED your council tax on their watch, while you now pay more council tax to the Police than you do to the Deane council.
Despite the Deane’s Lib Dems taking all the best bits of the Conservative budget, we were not able in principal to support the budget as they presented it on two important areas of difference between us.
These were the so-called ‘free swimming’, where, as we know, the Government will only fund it for two years and after that time we are not going to have the money to continue and will be faced with taking away from people something that will undoubtedly be popular with them.
There are in any case already discounts in place for the elderly to be able to swim at little cost, and there will be a lot of restrictions on when youngsters under 16 years old are able to swim, so the real benefit for the Deane’s swimmers is only slight.
The other difference was on plastic and cardboard recycling, where Conservatives were setting out the real situation and biting the bullet for the greater good of the community.
While the Lib Dems were making very blurred promises to introduce it some time or other over the next two years, we were saying that given the bottom falling out of the market and given the fact the council has little money, it would be better to delay it until next year when the financial situation would hopefully be better.

Another achievement by the Conservatives at last night's budget meeting was to reduce the size of the council house rent increase which the Lib Dems tried to impose on tenants.

The rent increase was cut from the Lib Dems' near-seven per cent rise to 6.2 per cent.

It was still a large increase but at least we have managed to save tenants some money.

David Cameron comes to town

YOU know how you see some people on television, and then, when you actually get to meet them in person, they seem very different?
Well, today I met David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader - and he turned out to be exactly the same person whom I have seen on television many times.
He was just as tall as I expected him to be, he had exactly the same skin complexion, he was just as smartly dressed, he smiled in the same manner, he spoke in the same tone of voice, and his message was exactly online.
It was a little bit like being on the set of a TV show and somehow not quite real.
Here was the man who is going to be the UK’s next elected Prime Minister - in about 15 months’ time unless Gordon Brown messes up even more than he has already - and here I was saying hello to him and shaking hands with him.
I wonder if he will remember me, should I attend the Party conference in the autumn and bump into him again.
Probably not.
It was an interesting and rewarding experience and one which raised the hairs on the back of my neck, even despite the fact that as a journalist I have been used to meeting leaders of the different political parties, as well as Ministers, celebrities, sporting stars, diplomats, and captains of industry, and have been up close with the Queen and members of her Royal family, including the late Princess Diana.
David Cameron’s visit to Taunton brought home how important to the future of this country is the need for Conservatives to form the next administration at County Hall.
If the electorate go out to vote in the Somerset County Council elections on June 4 and throw their support behind the Conservatives in large enough numbers, it will surely hasten the next General Election.
In turn, this will see David Cameron installed in No 10 as Prime Minister, and he will change the course which this country has been taking under Gordon Brown.
Labour have shown their ineptness at running the country and have plunged us headlong into economic chaos the like of which we have not seen since the war.
David Cameron now needs to get into Government as quickly as possible to appoint the Conservative Ministers who will turn things around and steer the economy back into calmer waters.
And Conservatives need to get into power at County Hall to freeze council tax bills, reduce the county’s debt mountain, save our small schools, mend our roads and pavements, and bring much-needed change to Somerset.

• The photographs shows (TOP) John Thorne (left) with David Cameron and other county council candidates, and (BELOW) John Thorne (third, right) with David Cameron supporting the Conservatives' pledge to freeze council tax at the county council.