Community News: Earley 2012 Awards

Congratulations to Brian Hackett, Jean Hackett and Peter Soul who have all been recognised in this year's Service to Earley Awards.

Brian, Jean and Peter launched the Earley Adopt A Street Initiative (EASI), a volunteer litter picking scheme, in 2010, and it has been a resounding success with over 200 volunteers in Earley each keeping an area of their neighbourhoods clean.

If you'd like to know more about the EASI scheme - or, indeed if you'd like to take part - then send an email to EASI@earleylibdems.org and we'll forward your information to the EASI team.

Local Election Results

A BIG thank you to everyone who voted Liberal Democrat in Wokingham's 2012 local elections.

Good news: the local election results in Wokingham went well for the Lib Dems, we held 3 seats  - even though all three were being contested by new candidates, the previous incumbents having retired - and we gained an additional seat in Winnersh.

Earley didn't fare quite so well, although we closed the gap on the Tories, we neither gained nor lost seats in Earley's elections.

If you'd like to see the results nationally for  the 2012 elections we recommend this great info-graphic from the Guardian summarising all the results:

Earley's Candidates for Thursday's Wokingham Borough Council Elections

David Hare - Maiden Erlegh Ward
David Hare is Leader of Earley Town Council Liberal Democrat group. He was a Borough Councillor for 15 years, Chair of Social Services & opposition lead for the Environment. David brought up his three sons, now grown up, in Earley. David works for The Alzheimer's Society in Reading, recruiting, training & placing volunteers. David is a Secretary of Berkshire Cricket Officials Association, a registered panel umpire, is active in a local church and is treasurer of a charity working in gardens with people who have mental health problems.

Anthony Vick - Hawkedon Ward

Anthony Vick has lived in Lower Earley for 8 years, and is bringing his family up here. He has actively campaigned to save Wokingham's  libraries, and is running a petition for a pedestrian crossing on Kilnsea Drive. Anthony has also been active in the community as a fundraiser for the Earleybird pre-school committee, a member of the Earley Adopt A Street Initiative (EASI), Chair of the Wellington Grange Residents' association, and a member of the Earley Neighbourhood Action Group.

Ketih Yabsley - Hillside Ward

Keith moved to Reading nearly 20 years ago to study at Reading University, and has since lived in Reading and Earley, working in the IT sector locally. He has settled with his wife, a teacher, and young daughter in Hillside, and is working with the Lib Dem team to help build a community of which local residents can feel proud to be part

What DEFRA Say About Wokingham's Stealth Tax

By Anthony Vick

Following the announcement that Wokingham Borough Council planned to introduce a Waste Scheme forcing residents to buy additional "official" bin bags from the Council (should they require them), in effect setting up a monopoly, I decided to write to DEFRA and ask whether it planned to take action against WBC. This is what DEFRA said:

Anthony Vick, Lib De

"Section 46(3) of the Environmental Protection Act gives local authorities the power to require householders to use a specific type of receptacle for their waste. Local authorities may require that the receptacle meets reasonable specifications, but if they require householders to purchase their own receptacle, whether for all or part of their waste services, they should not create a monopoly. They may not require the householder to purchase the receptacle from a single supplier. For example, if householders are required to present waste in black sacks, they should be able to choose where to buy their sacks, rather than being restricted to "official" ones which are only available from the local authority. Where local authorities provide the receptacle (bin, box or plastic sack), they are allowed to make a charge for this, but must ensure that any charge covers only the cost of providing the receptacle and not any additional fees to cover collection or disposal."

If a local authority sets a limit on the number of bins or sacks that will be collected from a single property, but allows householders to purchase additional waste receptacles, it may only charge for the cost of providing the receptacle and not include a fee for collection or disposal of the waste even if this waste is over and above what their normal waste collection system would allow a householder to present for collection.

Whilst acknowledging that local authorities face financial pressures, the Government has made it clear that excessive increases in charges are not an acceptable response to them. However, charges are a matter for local authorities to determine, and it would be inappropriate for central government to seek to micromanage them.

If you are unhappy with the service provided by your local authority you should first make a formal complaint to the authority. You can either ask the local authority how to do this, or speak directly to your councillor. If having done this, you feel that your local authority has not fulfilled its duties when investigating your complaint, you can contact the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO), which may investigate complaints of ‘maladministration’ such as bias, delay or incompetence etc." 

So, although DEFRA thinks it wrong of Wokingham Council to set-up a monopoly by forcing its residents to buy additional sacks only from the Council, it is unwilling to take action and suggests we raise the issue with the Local Government Ombudsman.

Well, let's see how Wokingham Borough Council respond to my  objection to the scheme  first (below), but calling in the LGO may not be such a bad idea.

I would like it formerly noted that I object to Wokingham Borough Council's new waste scheme, in particular the setting up of a monopoly forcing households who use more than 80 bin bags to purchase official bags from the Council (I am aware that households of 5 or more are entitled to 20 more bags). I believe the council is behaving illegally in this respect and would very much like it to reconsider it's position and allow  residents who wish to purchase their own bags from a 3rd party supplier to do so; I would suggest this could be done by providing these residents with free stickers to put on their bags. 

I would appreciate a response from the council on this matter so that I have a formal record of its position should I wish to take this matter further. Thank you.

Frankly I expect Wokingham Borough Council to brush off my complaint - and many other likes it - but it's an important and necessary step if we wish to raise the issue with the LGO and we want to challenge the Council's adoption of a stealth tax.
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed and hoping the Council will see sense and let people buy their own bags from other sources, but if not I may just take the LGO up on its suggestion.

The Truth About Wokingham's Rubbish

We wanted to know how much of Wokingham's Waste ended up in landfill, how much was recycled, and how much was composted so we asked the Council under the Freedom Of Information Act. We also asked Bracknell and Reading Councils for the same information for comparison.

The results are interesting and don't seem to equate to the Council's claims that it recycles 40% of our waste, however, 26000 tonnes of Wokingham's Waste isn't accounted for here, so we are seeking further clarification ( potentially it could be incinerated ).

It's interesting to note that although Wokingham has a higher total waste collection than Reading it recycles less of it, and that it also recycles less waste as a percentage of total waste than Bracknell. Is this the message you hear from our council?

This is the data for 2010/11:

Question: Please state the total weight of material your council collects from municipal waste collection and bring services – including waste presented at Household Waste Recycling Centres, Civic Amenity Sites or other bring sites, waste collected at kerbside and waste collected from businesses.

Answer:

Authority	Total Waste Collected (tonnes)
Bracknell Forest Borough Council	52966
Reading Borough Council	70770.55
Wokingham Council	75,532

Question:Please state how many tonnes of this municipal waste collected by the council are collected for recycling, how many for composting or anaerobic digestion (AD), and how many tonnes are collected as residual waste

Answer:

Authority	Tonnage collected for Recycling	Tonnage collected for Composting	Tonnage collected for EfW/Landfill
Bracknell Forest Borough Council	14737	8234	26094
Reading Borough Council	18584.46	6691.43	43915.06
Wokingham Council	17,240	12,304	19,342