Clwyd West MS and Shadow Minister for North Wales, Darren Millar, has made fresh calls for the Labour Welsh Government to review its recycling guidance, highlighting Denbighshire’s “summer of discontent” as a result of the “utterly shambolic roll-out” of its new recycling system.
In today’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Darren told the First Minister of the chaos in the county since the new system was introduced at the beginning of this month, emphasising that some residents have not had their bins collected in 5 weeks.
Two weeks ago in the Senedd, Darren urged the Labour Welsh Government to promote simpler household recycling systems going forward – like Denbighshire’s old system.
Questioning the First Minister today, he repeated this call.
In his question asking what action the Welsh Government is taking to protect the environment in North Wales, he said:
“One of the things that isn't helping the environment in north Wales is the appalling situation faced by people in Denbighshire.
“As you will be aware, the Labour-led Denbighshire council has overseen an utterly shambolic roll-out of a new recycling system at a cost of millions for taxpayers, which for some residents has seen their waste go uncollected for up to five weeks. It's leading, frankly, to a summer of discontent in Denbighshire, with festering rubbish building up on local streets, some of which now, I'm afraid, are reminiscent of Labour-run Britain in the 1970s.
“This is totally unacceptable, it's leading to pests like rodents and seagulls having a field day. The previous blue bin recycling system in Denbighshire worked very well, it had excellent satisfaction ratings and achieved some of the highest recycling rates in Wales, above those achieved by the new recycling system in other neighbouring counties.
“So, will you look again at your Welsh Labour Government's recycling guidance in Wales and promote simpler recycling systems, like the blue bin system, which work and make life easy for local residents?”
In his response the First Minister defended Denbighshire County Council stating “they're being honest and listening to what people are saying about some of the challenges in the system”.
He added:
“I believe we can be proud of what we've already done in our past, and prouder still of the next stage of the journey, because it isn't just about recycling, it's also about the improvement it will make to our economy.”
Speaking after the meeting Darren said:
“I don’t think any resident you speak to in Denbighshire currently is happy with the way this has been handled, and proud is certainly not a word I am hearing from them!”
