Friday, August 31, 2012

Labour put Birmingham wheelie bin consultation back to November

Labour put Birmingham wheelie bin consultation back to November


Birmingham’s Labour run Council has today announced that their plans to start consultation on the imposition of 3 wheelie bins per household will NOT start on 17th August as previous announced. Instead, they will wait until after October, when they will know if the government will give the Council the money for the wheelie bins. See http://birminghamnewsroom.com/2012/08/dclg-weekly-waste-bid-update/

This is a clear indication by the Council that they may have ‘screwed up’ this bid to the government. If I was Councillor James McKay I would be seriously thinking about resigning as Cabinet member if this bid fails to get the £28.5m he has bid for.

Let’s just remind ourselves of how this debacle started.

The government announced last year that they were inviting bids from Councils for ways to reintroduce weekly (from fortnightly) domestic waste collections, plus ways of increasing recycling. The government specifically mentoned that they would support bids for the introduction of food waste recycling schemes and increasing the frequency of current recycling collections from fortnightly to weekly. Nowhere did the government say they would fund the introduction of wheelie bins or even new containers.

The previous Conservative-Liberal Democrat administration put in a ‘notice of interest’ on a potential bid for a food waste recycling scheme, to be introduced in 2013, plus increasing recycling collections from fortnightly to weekly in areas that have high recycling collection rates.

The new Labour administration abandoned the proposed food recycling collection and increased recycling collection frequency bid. Instead they have put in a final bid of £28.5million to impose 3 wheelie bins per household for every household in Birmingham.

With the 17th August deadline passed for final bids, it has become clear that Birmingham’s bid is completely out-of-sync with every town and city in Britain. The most common bid is for the introduction of food recycling collections, with only one other authority bidding for the introduction of wheelie bins and that was only for green waste.

If the government only give a fraction of the £28.5million then some Labour politicians need to consider resigning after this debacle.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Birmingham Annual Garden Show reduced to an Allotment Show

Birmingham Annual Garden Show reduced to an Allotment Show

The Birmingham District Allotments Council have today publicly confirmed, with only two days to go, that a new version the Birmingham Annual Garden Show will be going ahead at Bordesley Green allotment. It will ONLY be an allotment show – there will be no talks or demonstrations. It will merely be a display of allotment produce, with a few traders

How this qualifies as a ‘Garden Show’ goodness knows. What a Labour shambles!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

How Labour confusion resulted in the cancellation of Birmingham Annual Garden Show 2012

How Labour confusion resulted in the cancellation of Birmingham Annual Garden Show 2012

As mentioned in my previous blog post, the Birmingham Annual Garden Show will not be happening this weekend. This will be the first time since 1945 the event has not happened. Yet, it was an election promise by the Birmingham Labour Party – with a photo of Councillor Sir Albert Bore – that promised to hold the 2012 event in Kings Heath. Indeed Councillor Lisa Trickett went further and said in her election literature: “I’m now part of the local group that will help deliver the restored event.”

Labour Party twitters, such as Councillor John O’Shea, have been quick to defend this shambles by blaming the weather, the volunteer organisers and even me!

The real truth is that this event is a victim of the complete and utter confusion that now exists throughout Birmingham City Council due to the new Labour administration completely bonkers reorganisation in May.

Any event will always have hiccups and it is in these situations that clear political leadership is required. In the case of Birmingham Annual Garden Show, once it became clean in late July/early August that the ground conditions in Kings Heath Park meant that the event could not happen here, then clear political leadership was required in finding alternative locations..........and there were plenty of suitable local alternative locations. These were:

1) The former playing pitch area in Highbury Park, where the cars would park during previous events at Kings Heath Park.

2) The red gravel area off Holders Lane, at the southern end of Cannon Hill Park

3) The City Centre Gardens – as used last year.

Remember that two local events will be held in parks this weekend: Eid Mela in Cannon Hill Park and Moseley Folk Festival in Moseley Private Park.

As I mentioned above, there is now total confusion within the Council as to which politicians are responsible for what. One of the first things the new Birmingham Labour administration did on gaining power was completely re-organise the political structure within the Council. This included getting rid of the Cabinet member for Leisure, Sport and Culture. Responsibilities for events are now distributed amongst 14 politicians.... totally insane.

In the case of Birmingham Annual Gardening Show, once the proverbial poo hit the fan in early August on this event, the officers did not know which politician to turn to make a decision as to what to do next. Total confusion reigned and so nothing happened.

The list of shame that the cancellation of the Birmingham Annual Garden Show rests on is as follows:

Councillor Lisa Trickett – Chair of Moseley and Kings Heath Ward Committee

Councillor Habib Rehman – Chair of Hall Green constituency

Councillor Ian Ward – Deputy Leader, Birmingham City Council

Councillor Sir Albert Bore – Leader, Birmingham City Council

Labour’s failure over cancellation of Birmingham Annual Garden Show 2012


Labour’s failure over cancellation of Birmingham Annual Garden Show 2012

For the first time since 1945, Birmingham will not have an annual garden show.....and it is all down to the utter failure by the new Birmingham Labour administration. Indeed, the Moseley and Kings Heath Labour Party made an election issue out of their campaign to get the show returned to Kings Heath Park. Below is a clipping from their leaflet in February. 

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So what have we ended up with? No show at Kings Heath Park and a last minute attempt to have the show at Bordesley Green allotments appears to have failed.

......and what have the Labour run Council said about this? NOTHING

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Birmingham’s wheelie bin bid completely out-of-sync with other Council bids


Birmingham’s wheelie bin bid completely out-of-sync with other Council bids

Readers of my blog will be aware that I have been very critical of Birmingham City Council’s £28.5million bid for government money to impose 3 wheelie per household for every house in Birmingham.

I’ve been critical of the underhand way that the new Labour administration is secretly bidding for these wheelie bins without prior consultation with residents as to whether they support this proposal. I’m not against wheelie bins per se, but I calculate that 50% of houses in Birmingham are not suitable for wheelie bins.

In addition I have been critical of the Labour administration’s abandoning the previous Conservative-Lib Dem administration’s bid for the introduction of weekly food waste collections in 2013, plus increasing the frequency of recycling collections from fortnightly to weekly.

Numerous Labour Councillors, most notably Councillor John O’Shea (Labour, Acocks Green) have claimed that the reason the Labour administration abandoned the food recycling scheme was because the government was unlikely to fund food recycling. He has repeatedly made this claim on the internet, including in an interview on the Adrian Goldberg show on Radio WM. He has provided the most tenuous of evidence to support this claim, despite the government’s own documentation clearly stating they would fund food waste recycling.

May I also add that the government own information does not even hint that they would fund the introduction of wheelie bins.

Now that the government deadline for bids to be submitted has passed, the dust is now settling on what other Councils have bid for. From my own google search, I have produced the list below. The thing that immediately jumps out is that most of the Council’s have bid for the introduction of food waste recycling. None have bid for the introduction of wheelie bins

Either Councillor John O’Shea, Councillor James McKay and the Birmingham Labour administration have brilliantly outmanoeuvred every single Council in the country and will brilliantly grab £28.5million from a £250million pot. OR they have just submitted the most disastrous and bonkers bid ever from Birmingham City Council for government money.

The following is what I’ve been able to discover that other Councils have bid for.

Blaby - £2.3 million capital to change waste collection fleet from single material to split bodies

Brent – introduction of food waste collection

Colchester – introduction of food waste collection

Coventry – introduction of a recycling reward points

East Cambridge - increase the recycling collections for food and dry recyclate from fortnightly to weekly

Eastleigh – Bid to fund an anaerobic digestion plant that will digest food waste

Gateshead – introduction of food waste collection

Havering, London - introduction of ‘green reward scheme’

Herefordshire – introduction of food waste collection

Leeds – introduction of food waste collection, plus introduction of fortnight green waste collection

Lewes – introduction of food waste collection

Medway – increase the recycling collections for food and dry recyclate from fortnightly to weekly

Northampton – introduction of food waste collection

Norwich – expansion of food waste collection service, plus door-to-door campaign to encourage recycling

Oadby and Wigston, Leicestershire - introduction of food waste collection, plus introduction of ‘residents composting reward scheme’

Plymouth - £4 million capital to finance a Multi-Recycling Facility that will sort out collected glass, metal and plastics

Redbridge, London – introduction of mattress collection service and weekly green waste collection

Ribble Valley – purchase of two refuse vehicle specifically for recycling collection; free additional wheelie bins for green waste collection on request;

Sandwell – introduction of battery collection, nappy collection, waste electrics

Sefton – introduce cardboard and plastics recycling scheme

Spalding – introduction of electric powered refuse collection vehicles, plus free black sacks to residents and recycling reward scheme.

Stoke-on-Trent - increase the recycling collections for dry recyclate from fortnightly to weekly

Surrey – introduction of a free weekly collection of nappies

How a long lost Birmingham playing fields were re-discovered in 2011


How a long lost Birmingham playing fields were re-discovered in 2011

In the recent media furore about which government sold off the most school playing fields, I can at least report a success story here in Birmingham.

As a born and bred Birmingham lad, it has really upset me to see the gradual loss of playing fields throughout this city.......and I don’t mean just the building of housing estates on them. I mean also the slow death of playing fields that once had changing rooms and laid out sports pitches, but are now just grass. The only activity taking place on them are local residents walking their dogs.

Birmingham’s forefathers in the 1920s and 30s recognised the importance of organised sporting activities. With the quickly expanding city, they set aside large parks and playing fields, complete with changing rooms and laid out sports pitches. Many of these playing field were not attached to any particular school, since they were available to all local schools and the community to hire.

When I became Cabinet member for Leisure, Sport and culture I was determined to reverse this decline of the state of our playing fields. In my three years as Cabinet member I can point to at least two playing field success stories: Holford Drive playing fields in Perry Barr and Belcher Lane playing fields in Small Heath. More work-in-progress to re-activate unused playing fields was taking place, but sadly it appears this has now ground to a halt under the new Birmingham Labour administration.

The playing fields I want to focus on for this article are Belchers Lane playing fields.

Belchers Lane playing fields were last used in the late 1970s – indeed I remember using them when I was in Primary school in 1975. For the last thirty years, they have been closed to the public, with the rough grass reaching two foot in height every summer and then the Council spending about £30k each year to trim the grass. The public can’t access the playing fields, since they are surrounded by houses and Heartlands hospital. The only way to walk on them was by climbing over a six foot high metal spiked security fence.

The playing fields are located in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Britain – Small Heath. In the densely packed terraced streets of Small Heath, there is little public space available for organised sports. Indeed, the locally and brilliantly organised Birmingham Public Parks Cricket League has to travel four miles to Perry Barr to play cricket every Sunday.

The previous Birmingham Labour administration had in 2003, decided that Belchers Lane playing fields could be built on for a medical business park and a pay-and-display car park for the next door Heartlands hospital. They announced that these were no longer playing fields and were ‘surplus to requirements’. This decision was made, despite mass protests from local residents.

You go to Belchers Lane playing today and there is a newly laid out cricket square and football pitch.....and the cost to the Birmingham rate payers was zero. The cricket square was laid at a cost of £25k by the English Cricket Board (ECB). Can I add that during my three years as Cabinet member, I had a fantastic relationship with the ECB, since we were both determined to increase and improve the provision of organised cricket matches in Birmingham.

Belchers Lane playing fields have now been adopted by Waverley School and re-designated as playing fields. Waverley School will maintain the two pitches from within their own school budget. The two pitches will be available for hire at the same price as a Council maintained pitch, with Waverley School having priority in their use.

Both pitches were laid out last winter and will be ready for use in Summer 2013.

Thanks to the organisation Sports for Life, a permanent cricket team from the local community is being created for this site. And plans are already advanced to build a cricket academy on one tight corner of the site; this will act as a feeder route for local teenagers to Warwickshire Cricket club.

All of this was done without costing the taxpayers of Birmingham a penny. All it required was political determination and leadership, plus pulling all the right people together.

Can I finally thank my Cabinet colleague, Councillor Les Lawrence, Cabinet member for Children and Young People, who shared my enthusiasm to re-activating old playing fields and worked in partnership with me on Belchers Lane and Holford Drive playing fields.

Below are satellite photos show Belchers Lane playing field (bordered in red) in 2003 and 2012.




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Friday, August 17, 2012

Where wheelie bins have gone wrong in Coventry, Walsall and Wolverhampton

Well today is the day that Birmingham City Council submits its application for government funding to impose 3 wheelie bins for every household in Birmingham. Despite clear direction from the government that they will fund food waste recycling and increased recycling collection frequency, the new Labour administration has abandoned these proposals. Instead the Labour Council is bidding for the introduction of wheelie bins, even though government guidance does not even suggest it will fund these.

I am not against wheelie bins per se, but what I am against is the 100% coverage (or even 90 to 95% coverage as suggested by Councillor James McKay) of THREE wheelie bins per household. I have argued that there are large swathes of Birmingham where wheelie bins will not work, especially terrace housing and flats. 50% of Birmingham’s housing stock of is terrace houses and flats.....and therefore I argue that only 50% of properties in Birmingham could comfortably accommodate wheelie bins.

If we force wheelie bins onto terrace houses and flats, you will end up with wheelie bins either permanently on the pavement OR stuffed into front gardens transforming them large waste storage areas. In short the streetscape of large parts of Birmingham will be dominated by the eyesore of wheelie bins.

According to Councillor James McKay and numerous other Labour Councillors on twitter, neighbouring towns with wheelie bins and terrace houses live happily with wheelie bins. Well I decided to have a look. With the modern magic of Google Earth and Street View it is very easy to see the impact of wheelie bins on the streets of Coventry, Walsall and Wolverhampton. As the photos below show, a quick look (and believe me, all I’ done a simple drop down on random terrace streets) shows terrace street after terrace street in these towns dominated and blighted by the eyesore of wheelie bins. And as the wheelie bin gets older and damaged, that eye sore becomes worse.

So what follows are some shots of streets, randomly picked in Coventry, Walsall and Wolverhampton showing how wheelie bins don’t work in parts of these towns and look an eyesore.



Coventry

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The above photo shows a street with wheelie bins on the pavement 7 days a week. Birmingham has loads of streets that have no front gardens and this is what will happen in these streets.

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The photo above shows how front gardens simply become large waste storage areas....and in Birmingham the intention is to have THREE wheelie bins per household. Streets like the above simply become dominated by the eyesore of wheelie bins

Walsall

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Again the above photo shows wheelie bins permanently on the pavement
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Again the above photo shows front garden dominated by wheelie bins


Wolverhampton

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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Kings Heath flower show moved to Bordesley Green

Kings Heath flower show moved to Bordesley Green

I've been asked to forward the below e-mail relating to the moving of the Kings Heath Park flower show to a new location in Bordesley Green


Dear All,


Although the Kings Heath Park venue is unworkable a generous offer by the
Birmingham & District Allotments Council to hold the event at their giant
allotment site in Bordesley Green has meant that the show shall go on!
For further information contact Christine Brown on 444-4294


Jonathan Jaffa,
BAGS Organizing Committee.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Kings Heath Park flower show is cancelled


Kings Heath Park flower show is cancelled


Below is the text of an the email below, explaining the disappointing cancellation of the 2012 Birmingham Annual Gardening Show (BAGS) for your information


Dear All,

Regretfully the Organizing Committee of the Birmingham Annual Gardening Show (BAGS) have voted to cancel this year's show. The unprecedented amount of rain that has fallen so far and the forecast of yet more to come has left the Park in no fit state to welcome 5-10,000
visitors safely.

Please inform your friends and associates of this.

Thank you for your efforts on behalf of the show and be assured that we are already working to host the event next year.

Jonathan Jaffa,
Chair,
BAGS Organizing Committee.

Is Birmingham Labour’s wheelie bin bid doomed to fail?



Is Birmingham Labour’s wheelie bin bid doomed to fail?


With less than a week to go for Birmingham City Council to submit its bid for government money – it has to be submitted by 17th August – there is still no sign of it amending its scheme to include a food recycling collection.

As readers of my blog and twitter account will know, there have been several Labour Councillors incorrectly claiming that the government would not fund a food recycling scheme. As my blog at http://martinmullaney.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/why-claims-that-government-will-not.html shows, food recycling scheme is exactly the type of scheme that the government is saying they WILL fund.

However, let’s look at things another way. Will the government fund Birmingham’s £28.5m bid to impose 3 wheelie bins per household for every household? My conclusion is that they are unlikely to do so.


For evidence, or lack of, let’s look at the government’s on part of their Weekly Collection Support Scheme in their Frequently Answered Questions document at http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/2139162.pdf Nowhere in this document does it say that the government will fund wheelie bins or even changes to waste containers. On the other hand it does specifically, and repeatedly, say they would fund schemes that the previous Conservative-Liberal Democrat administration were going to bid for, namely:


  • increased recycling collection frequency
  • a reward scheme for residents who recycle
  • a city wide food recycling scheme.


Even if you look in the criteria for bids, I fail to see where wheelie bins would fit. The criteria is


  • · Guarantee to introduce, retain or reinstate weekly collections of residual waste for five years; and
  • · Provide environmental benefits or improvements on current environmental performance; and
  • · Demonstrate value for money.

Based on the secret Council report, the Labour administration has tried to link wheelie bins to all three of the above criteria on the most dubious evidence. Yet not once does the government even mention wheelie bins or containers as examples they would fund.


In conclusion
We will know in October if the government will fund the Birmingham Labour administration’s wheelie bin bid. If they don’t, then the administration will quite rightly be accused of utter incompetence.


Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Why claims that the government will not fund a Birmingham food recycling scheme are utter nonsense

Why claims that the government will not fund a Birmingham food recycling scheme are utter nonsense

Those of you that follow my twitters will know that both Councillor John O’Shea (Labour , Acocks Green Ward) and myself went head-to-head on Radio WM this morning discussing the Birmingham Labour administration’s proposal to impose 3 wheelie bins per household throughout Birmingham.

In our debate, I raised the issue of the Labour administration abandoning the previous administrations proposal to bid for a city-wide food recycling collection. The food recycling collection would have been introduced in 2013 and would have been rotted down inside an anaerobic digester. The rotting food waste would in turn have produced methane gas which could have been used to generate electricity.

Throughout our debate Cllr O’Shea kept saying that the reason the food recycling was abandoned was because the government would not have funded it. He keeps repeating this claim on twitter. One twitter example is as follows “Food waste collection in Birmingham context does not fit this bid hierarchy laid down by DCLG & was not encouraged.”

This is all totally nonsense by Cllr O’Shea.


So what will the government will fund as part of their Weekly Collection Support Scheme? This can be seen in their Frequently Answered Questions document at http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/2139162.pdf

A browse through this document shows the government repeatedly suggesting that food waste collections are acceptable to bid for. Yet wheelie bins are NOT even mentioned
Question 1 in the document says the following. 

“The Weekly Collection Support Scheme is a challenge fund designed to support local authorities to introduce, retain or reinstate a weekly collection of residual waste and/or recycling (for example food waste).“ 

It then goes to suggest what Councils could bid for “investment in technologies ...... Composting or Anaerobic Digestion;” Anaerobic digestion is what is used to rot down food recycling.

Let’s go further on into document and look at Question 2. It says:
The addition of a weekly food waste collection for five years in this circumstance is considered to offer an increase in the service offered to householders.”

Going further on into document and look at Question 54. It says:
“Authorities that have worked hard to preserve weekly residual collections can also bid into the Scheme if they want to add a new recycling component such as weekly food waste.

.....and finally lets look at the Question 58 that Councillor John O’Shea clings onto as his evidence that the government wouldn’t fund food recycling.

“Question 58: Is there a preference for food waste?
The hierarchy against which bids will be judged is outlined in the Prospectus as:
i) a weekly residual collection alongside a weekly recyclables collection;
ii) a weekly residual collection with fortnightly recyclables collection;
iii) adding a weekly food waste (or organic) collection to a fortnightly collection of residual household waste.”

The above hierarchy is important, since it is against this criteria that I believe the Labour administrations bid for wheelie bins could fail. Notice the first preference “a weekly residual collection alongside a weekly recyclables collection;” The previous administration was going to also bid for increased recycling collection rates, so that areas with high levels of recycling would get weekly collections. The Labour administration has abandoned this proposal.
The previous administration’s bid to the government would have satisfied levels (i) and (ii) in the hierarchy......which in turn would have unlocked money for weekly food waste collections in level (iii).

In conclusion
Councillor John O’Shea is talking complete rubbish when he says the government would not have funded food recycling.......their own document is covered with suggestions for Councils to bid for food waste recycling.

It is interesting that the governments Frequently Asked Questions document does NOT suggest or hint at the government will funding wheelie bins ...... and yet the Birmingham Labour administration has blindly ignored the government’s advice and bid for £28.5million worth of wheelie bins. Does this sound like a bid that is going to be successful? I think not.

Monday, August 06, 2012

Misleading Birmingham Mail article and Sandwell’s increase in recycling rate to 53% by food recycling

Misleading Birmingham Mail article and Sandwell’s increase in recycling rate to 53% by food recycling

Interesting, but misleading story in todays Birmingham Mail about recycling rates in Sandwell. See http://www.birminghammail.net/news/birmingham-news/2012/08/06/sandwell-soars-in-recycling-league-table-thanks-to-wheelie-bins-97319-31555911/

The story is by a journalist, Jane Tyler, for whom I have the greatest respect and I can only assume she has been forced to report this utter nonsense from the Birmingham Labour Party who are intent on imposing 3 wheelie bins on EVERY household in Birmingham.

The article says that Sandwell has increased its recycling rate from “39per in 2011 to 53 per cent by June of this year”. The article goes on to claim that this success is due to “introducing wheelie bins to all households”.

A quick search of the Sandwell website tells a completely different story.

Have a look at this webpage from Sandwell Council on 20th April 2012 http://www.sandwell.gov.uk/news/article/1674/major_boost_for_recycling_rates

In the Sandwell Council article it says “Household recycling rates in Sandwell have shot up by 25% during the last 12 months.”

No where in the article does it mention wheelie bins. But what it does give credit to is “Earlier this year we completed the roll out of food waste recycling bins to all homes with kerbside collections.”

If we move forward to 26th July and the press release that the Birmingham Mail article is based on http://www.sandwell.gov.uk/news/article/1831/recycling_rates_on_the_rise_in_sandwell Again no where does Sandwell Council mention wheelie bins. But it does say is “All homes in the borough with kerbside collections now have weekly domestic, recycling and food waste collections, while fortnightly garden waste collections now run throughout the year.” Notice the WEEKLY collections for recycling and food waste.

The Birmingham Mail has simply regurgitated a story produced by the Birmingham Labour Party which has been totally dishonest with the facts.

Sandwell Council has significantly increased its recycling from 39% to 53% by the introduction of a food recycling scheme and increasing the recycling frequency for kerbside collections. The previous Birmingham conservative-Liberal Democrat administration was in advanced talks on the construction of an anaerobic digester which would rot down food waste and create methane to be recycled for heat generation. The introduction of the food waste recycling scheme alone would have increased Birmingham’s recycling rate from 32% to above 50%, since about 40% of residual waste is food waste. Also by recycling food waste, the issue of cats and foxes ripping open black sacks would end, since the sacks would no longer contain the food waste that attracts cats and foxes.

The present Labour administration has abandoned this food recycling scheme.

The previous Birmingham Conservative-Liberal Democrat administration was also going to bid for government money to increase the recycling rate for paper, plastic, metals and glass from fortnightly to weekly in areas with high recycling rates.

The present Labour administration has abandoned this proposal to move from fortnightly to weekly recycling collections.

So beware of wheelie bin nonsense reported in the Birmingham Mail in the coming weeks. The Birmingham Labour Party is going to try and spin residents into believing that imposing 3 wheelie bins per household for every household is right and proper and that it is YOU that is wrong to think otherwise.

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Labour’s wheelie bin plans start to unravel


Birmingham Labour’s bonkers wheelie bin plans start to unravel

Interesting letter in today Birmingham Mail from the Cabinet member behind the proposed wheelie bin project, Councillor James McKay. His letter shows the first sign of the complete unravelling of the Council’s secret bid for government money to impose 3 wheelie bins per household for every household in Birmingham.

Readers of my blog will be aware the government are inviting bids from Councils for funds which will help Councils maintain weekly domestic waste collections and increase recycling.

The previous administration had intended to bid for the following:
  • increased recycling collection
  • a reward scheme for residents who recycle
  • a city wide food recycling scheme.  

Talks were at an advanced stage in the construction of an anaerobic digester which would rot down food waste and create methane to be recycled for heat generation. The introduction of the food waste recycling scheme alone would have increased Birmingham’s recycling rate from 32% to above 50%, since about 40% of residual waste is food waste. Also by recycling food waste, the issue of cats and foxes ripping open black sacks would end, since the sacks would no longer contain the food waste that attracts cats and foxes.

The Labour administration have now dropped the previous administrations plans and instead have gone for a bonkers scheme to impose 3 wheelie bins per household for every house in Birmingham. I have argued that NOT all households in Birmingham can handle wheelie bins, due to a lack of storage space, poor access to the rear of properties or steep front gardens. Indeed, almost the entire Victorian and Edwardian housing stock of Birmingham is not suitable for wheelie bins. Places like the tight terrace houses of Kings Heath, Balsall Heath, Selly Park, Harborne, Acocks Green, etc are complete non-starters for wheelie bin use.....in short 50% of the houses of Birmingham are not suitable for wheelie bins.

So what do we get in todays Birmingham Mail, an admission, at last, from Councillor James McKay that the Council will “consider residents who are unable to have wheelie bins because, for example, there is no rear access to the property, or where the property is on a steep hill”

That admission is step forward , but it does raise the following questions:
-          If 50% of Birmingham housing stock is not suitable for wheelie bins, what service is he going to offer these areas to stop black bags being ripped open?
-          Will he now at last accept that he was wrong to drop the previous administrations plans to introduce a food waste recycling scheme, which would have ended the ripping open of black bags by cats and foxes?
-          Will he now alter the Councils bid for wheelie bins so that only 50% of houses have wheelie bins imposed on them?
-          Finally in the true spirit of devolution, will he agree that the final say on which roads have wheelie bins is decided by the 3 Wards Councillors, who know their own Wards far better than a distant Cabinet member in the Council House?

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Birmingham Labour comes clean, well almost, about its wheelie bin plans


Birmingham Labour comes clean, well almost, about its wheelie bin plans


The below e-mail has been sent to all Birmingham City Councillors this afternoon following my release of details about Labour secret plan to impose 3 wheelie bins per household on all households in Birmingham.

In the spirit of openness I will reproduce Cllr McKay’s e-mail below, unedited, and then comment on it afterwards.


From: James McKay [mailto:James.McKay@birmingham.gov.uk]
Sent: 02 August 2012 16:26
To: James McKay
Subject: Update on the weekly collection scheme

Dear Colleagues,

I am sure you are aware of the publicising of details of the Council’s DCLG bid.

It is genuinely shocking that sensitive contents of a Private Report should be shared in this way.  The bidding process is highly competitive, with local authorities across the country seeking a share of a limited pot of money.  Understandably, Birmingham is seeking to maintain a competitive edge by not revealing the amount or details of its bid, which is not yet finalised.

I would make the following points:

1.        We know that wheeled bins are not suitable for every household.  Experience in neighbouring authorities and other core cities has shown between 90 -95% of houses are suitable for a wheeled bin. We envisage similar levels of suitability here.  The Council will of course not be introducing wheeled bins to properties that cannot accommodate them.
2.        Some households will want larger bins. Some households will want smaller bins. Some households won’t be suitable for wheeled bins at all.  We will obviously accommodate that. One size does not fit all.  
3.        We understand that some residents (the elderly and the disabled) may struggle with wheeled bins and we will continue to provide assisted collections to those households.
4.        The current system of open boxes allows the wind to scatter paper and recyclates, while wheeled bins would prevent this leading to an improved street scene. Furthermore the increased capacity for recycling will allow residents to recycle more.
5.        Experience shows that the use of wheeled bins does significantly increase recycling.
6.        We should not misunderstand the relative importance put on food waste collections in the DCLG’s assessment criteria. While the separate collection of food waste can increase recycling rates, the introduction of separate food waste collections would not rank as highly in the bidding process as proposals that maintain weekly collections of residual waste.
7.        The Council has not yet selected or consulted upon food waste collections, and at this stage all options are still open.
8.        80% of Local Authorities use wheeled bins.  

I am truly disappointed that sensitive information has been released, potentially damaging Birmingham’s chances of receiving millions of pounds from the government.

I believe this bid will increase recycling, give us cleaner streets, and be a more cost-effective form of collection.  It will also roll out an innovative incentive-based recycling project, further driving up recycling rates.  It is a progressive, flexible scheme, which will deliver for our city, while being sensitive to the needs of our residents.  In a time of austerity, this is a rare chance to make a transformational change to services in our city.

As always intended, on 17th August, we will start a full consultation with residents and the workforce. Through that process, we will give full details of the final bid.

Cllr James McKay
Harborne ward
Cabinet Member for a Green, Safe and Smart City


My view:

The e-mail exposes everything I have said all week. THREE wheelie bins per household will be imposed on every single household or to paraphrase the above e-mail, 90 to 95% of properties in Birmingham will have wheelie bins, ONLY properties (5 to 10%) that physically do not have room for the wheelie bins will not have them.

The promised consultation will NOT be about whether residents want wheelie bins or not, but what size of domestic waste bin you want.

On top of this, a proposal for a city wide food recycling scheme to be introduced in 2013, has been abandoned.....which may I add, Cllr McKay denied to be the case in his webcast on Wednesday.

I could go over a number of claims that Cllr McKay makes in his e-mail, but I feel I have already answered many of his points in my previous blog at http://martinmullaney.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/birmingham-labours-secret-and-insane.html

As I have emphasised repeatedly, I am not against wheelie bins in principle; my property could easily accommodate three wheelie bins. What I am against is the Birmingham Labour Party imposing  wheelie bins on EVERY single household without any consultation as to whether residents want wheelie bins or not. I am also against the Birmingham Labour Party quietly dumping a food recycling scheme, which would have significantly increased Birmingham’s recycling rate.  

I am content that my efforts are in the public interest and have exposed the Birmingham Labour Party’s secret plans.

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Birmingham Labour's secret and insane wheelie bin bid to Government


Birmingham Labour's secret and insane wheelie bin bid to Government

There is one thing that brings out the worst in Birmingham politicians and that is the question of whether or not wheelie bins should be used to collect household waste....and this week has highlighted this point.

I don’t have an issue with the use of wheelie bins per se. I live in a property, where wheelie bins could be accommodated quite easily. But there’s a large contingent within Birmingham’s Labour Party that have an obsessive view that you cannot have too many wheelie bins. They also believe that somehow the introduction of wheelie bins everywhere will cure all the recycling and litter problems in Birmingham....and boy has this obsession been evident this week.

First of all some background to this week’s argument.

The Coalition government has invited all local Councils to bid for money to help them maintain, or return to, weekly domestic waste collections. Councils can also bid for money to help increase their recycling rates. The first round of bids was for 22nd June, where Council’s put in outline bids. All Councils were given feedback on their outline bids and invited to put in their more detailed and final bids by 17th August. At this week’s Cabinet meeting, the final bid by Birmingham City Council was agreed and submitted.

So what was submitted as the final bid? Well, the Labour Council won’t tell us, since the details of that bid was only discussed in the non-public part of the Cabinet. The Council claims that if it was publicly announced what it was bidding for, it would give rivals an advantage over our bid. I could accept that argument, if what was been proposed was not contentious – but what is been bid for is so contentious and so anti-recycling, I really do believe it is important that all residents should know what is proposed.

This is what Birmingham City Council is asking the government to fund at the cost of £28.5million for:
  • 240 litre wheeled bin for recycling with a separate insert box for paper/card – maintain fortnightly collection service
  • 140 - 240 litre bin depending on household size, for domestic waste – maintain weekly collection service
  • 240 litre wheeled bin for green waste - fortnightly collection service
The Council has bid for £28.5million, so that EVERY household in Birmingham will have one of these bins.

The previous administrations proposal to bid for food recycling waste containers for every household, to be introduced in 2013, has been dropped. The containers would have been similar to what Somerset use – see http://www.somersetwaste.gov.uk/collections/food/  Instead, the Cabinet Private report it says the following about food recycling: "[green recycling wheelie bins] could facilitate future collections of food waste although this is not part of the final bid". THIS PROPOSAL TO MIX GREEN AND FOOD WASTE IS ECONOMICALLY INSANE AND A COMPLETE NON-STARTER, AS I WILL EXPLAIN LATER.

So why do I believe this bid by the new Labour administration to be ill thought out? Well how about these for a start?
1)     I don’t believe wheelie bins are suitable for EVERY household in Birmingham. Moseley and Kings Heath illustrate this point very well. Wheelie bins would work fine in roads like Oxford Road who have large gardens, detached houses, with easy access to the rear garden where the wheelie bins can be stored. In complete contrast, wheelie bins would be problematic in the tight terrace roads of Kings Heath, like Bank Street, where the gardens are small and rear access to store the wheelie bins is sometimes non-existant.
2)     Wheelie bins for residual waste will NOT increase recycling, but instead reduce the recycling rate. Give someone a large container and they will fill it.
3)     Introducing plastic containers for food waste is the way to significantly increase Birmingham’s recycling rate. Look at these handy plastic food recycling containers in Somerset http://www.somersetwaste.gov.uk/collections/food/  .....and this bid
4)     The only argument for introducing wheelie bins, is that cats, rats and foxes rip open black sacks and scatter the contents across the road. The reason cats, rats and foxes rip open black sacks is because they can smell the food waste.......and if you have plastic containers for recycling food waste, then this whole issue is resolved. But under Labour’s plans, you will still be left with a huge wheelie bin for non-food residual waste, which will only ever be partly filled.
5)     The proposal that food waste will be included in green waste is totally insane. At the moment, all green waste from Birmingham is rotted down into compost in the open air in several farms around Evesham. Food waste has to be composted down inside sealed containers – this is so as to stop the possibility of scavenging birds spreading foot-and-mouth disease. Including food waste into green waste will mean that ALL of Birmingham’s green waste will have to composted down inside enormous sealed containers. IT IS ECONOMICALLY INSANE TO EVEN PROPOSE MIXING FOOD AND GREEN WASTE AND THE EXPENSE OF DOING SO MEANS IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN.
6)     Why do we need to go to wheelie bins for plastic, paper or green waste? Cats, rats or foxes do not scatter these. I do accept that in areas that already produce large quantities of green waste, there is both an economic and recycling advantage in using wheelie bins. So how about focusing wheelie bins for green waste on areas that produces tonnes of it already, ie Sutton Coldfield, Moseley, Hall Green, etc. For other areas retain the use of green sacks.

The previous administrations proposed bid to the government had increased recycling at its heart, these included
-       the introduction of a food waste recycling collection to every household in 2013, using plastic containers similar to those already used in Somerset http://www.somersetwaste.gov.uk/collections/food/ 
-       the roll-out across the entire city of a joint Nector Points and Leisure Card Reward scheme for recycling. Yes, get free access to the Council gyms and leisure centres by recycling more.
-       move the collection of plastics, metals, paper and glass to weekly collection in areas that have high RECYCLING collection rates. We now have data going back several years, showing which roads produce high levels of recycling.

Instead, we have a bid by the new Labour administration has panders to the ‘wheelie bin’ obsessive’s in their own party, with little or nothing that proposes to actually increase recycling. It’s wheelie bins for everything and everyone, whether you need one or not. No reasoning has been given as to why we need wheelie bins for recycling, when other Council’s do with boxes. No reasoning has been given for dumping our one chance to introduce food recycling across the city in under 12 months.

Labour claims that if the bid for £28.5million is successful they will then begin consultation on where wheelie bins will be introduced. This is utter rubbish. If the government grants Birmingham £28.5million for wheelie bins, are Labour going to consult on whether we want this £28.5million or not? Of course they won’t. They will force these bins onto us, whether we want them or not. .....and the chance to introduce food waste recycling will be lost for several years.

Yet again Labour failing its residents of Birmingham in a wheelie bin obsessive bid to the government.

Birmingham Labour cancels plans to recycle food waste


Birmingham Labour cancels plans to recycle food waste

Cllr Jerry Evans (Lib Dem, Springfield Ward) has slammed a decision by Birmingham’s Cabinet not to include collection of food waste in their bid for funding from the Government’s Weekly Collection Support Scheme.

“This is a significant U turn and a backward step as Labour Councillors supported the introduction of a food recycling scheme from 2013 in April of this year.

“They appear to be determined to provide households with three wheelie bins one for household waste, a second for recyclable materials and a third for green waste and have lost sight of a commitment they signed up to in April to introduce household collection for food waste from 2013”.

“Their failure to commit to the collection of food waste will ensure that the percentage of waste that’s recycled will remain lower than expected and will put in question achievement of the city’s 50% recycling target by 2020, as laid out in the Scrutiny recommendations passed with all party support in April 2012.”.

“Estimates indicate (1)that there is potential to collect 42,844 tones of food waste. 22,773 tonnes of household waste and 20.071 tonnes from commercial & industrial businesses within the city. The collection of bio gas from this waste would save up to 40,000 tones of CO2.

“This would be a double bonus for the city as it would deliver an increased recycling rate and reduce the CO2 emissions”.

I’m surprised that the collection of food waste was not included in the bid. Food waste collection was a scoring criteria in the competitive process in the city’s bid for money to support weekly collections”. I hope that this omission will not put the bid in jeopardy”.

“By not collecting food waste as they agreed the new administration has demonstrated its lack of ambition for the green agenda”.

“If the weekly food collection went ahead there would be no need waste nigh on twenty million pounds on providing households with multiple wheelie bins”