No weekly rubbish collections for us

A "massive" cash injection has been snubbed by Welwyn Hatfield Council as it refused to go back to weekly bin collections, reports our local paper.

Mr Pickles urged voters to hit councils that don’t revert to weekly bin collections at the ballot box.

But the Conservative-controlled borough council has spurned the money and said the current system saves money for residents.

The council is saving £300,000 a year by collecting and recycling in alternate weeks "compared to weekly collections of refuse". Their spokeswoman said

To revert to weekly collections for all refuse and recycling would be of no benefit to householders.

That's debatable, but it's not what was on offer. The suggestion was that just the landfill refuse would be collected weekly.

We're recycling more in Welwyn Hatfield now. Leave aside that the recycling policy is driven by threats of EU fines; our increase in recycling happens to coincide with being able for the first time to recycle plastic, of which we have a lot. But let's skip evidence based policymaking.

In what our paper calls "a barbed aside", the council's spokeswoman for half truths added:

It would be preferable for the Government to use any spare funds that it has to restore some of the £2m grant money that has been reduced from the council over the last two years that could then be put towards wider services.

And this is the policy of a Conservative council. They support big government.

Have they not got it into their heads that government is spending money we haven't got?

You've still got the equivalent of £17,000 to your name as part of the public sector net debt. That goes for every man, woman and child in the country.

Next year it will grow to £18,896 as the public debt continues to expand thanks to next year's annual public sector overspend (deficit), forecast to be £101bn.... By 2015-16 your share of the public sector net debt will have grown to £22,061.

Message to my local council. You need to SPEND LESS. You could start by sacking Ms Barbed Aside.

Update: Richard North puts this local authority mindset in a wider perspective.