You are correct to note that the Labour’s rubbish policy is inspired by rules set by the European Union. So, if by chance the Conservatives form the government in Westminster after the next general election, what will they do to restore weekly bin collections? Will they negotiate an exemption from the EU’s Landfill Directive? Will they renegotiate our terms of membership with the EU. Or will they come up with new excuses for why these unpopular polices must be shoved down the throats of the public?

I note that Tory-controlled County Councils such as Surrey’s and East Sussex’s are rushing through the construction of unpopular waste incinerators in order to meet the requirement’s of the Landfill Directive.

It is fine to criticize Labour for implementing these polices, but how will a Tory government meet the recycling targets set out in the Landfill Directive?

Reply: I want this to be part of the renegotiation we will need. We await the Manifesto.

Why put forward policies now and let Labour nick them? (ie copy them very badly.)

Surely a broad brush is what’s needed until much nearer the next General Election, then we can show what we’re made of.

In the meantime let the councils show how Conservatives can improve things locally and give the electorate even more of a taste for change.

And previous commenters are correct - party politics are meaningless in the face of the power-crazy Hitlers in Brussels who are set upon ‘dismantling the old borders’ to usher in a Super State by the back door. Anyone who will take us out of the European Integration will get my vote. Anyone who will take control of our borders will get my vote.

And previous commenters are correct - party politics are meaningless in the face of the power-crazy Hitlers in the in Brussels who are set upon ‘dismantling the old borders’ to usher in a Super State by the back door. Anyone who will take us out of the European Integration will get mmy vote. Anyone who will take control of our borders will get my vote.

Correct me if I’m wrong - but don’t local councils have to enforce the diktats imposed on them from central government (and Brussels)?

I am genuinely curious.

I see a mass of poorly conceived legislation which creates scores of new criminal offences; the stripping away of traditional civil liberties; the overt politicisation of the police; the bullying behaviour of intrusive and aggressive officialdom; the almost constant surveillance; the prospect of having to carry and provide ID cards.

Is it simply the (perhaps all too convenient) threat of terrorism?

COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 1999/31/EC

of 26 April 1999

on the landfill of waste

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

This is not Labour’s fault. It is entirely the fault of the EU. A Conservative Government would have acted in exactly the same way.

The big difference locally, however, is that the Conservative Council will regularly and, on demand too, collect illegal fly tipping in the drainage dykes within the week, the binmen are polite and very efficient, and, finally, we get three wheelie bins and local glass collection services as well as a super tip with nice officials.

How do you intend to do that when the government is bound by the Landfill Directive? Renegotiate our treaties?

Reply: Yes

As you know, though, Councils are forced into this rubbish collection nonsense because we are signed up to EU legislation to reduce the amount of waste going into landfill or face massive fines.

Nobody in Britain voted for that - it was imposed by our real government in Brussels. A bunch of sleazy, corrupt, third rate anonymous nonentities. No wonder they prefer to avoid the ballot box and impose their will by diktat!

The only solution is withdrawal from the EU and repatriation of power from Brussels to Westminster.

You can count the MPs in favour of that on the fingers of one hand.

The entire British political and civil service establishment are pro-EU

Therefore we may as well all emigrate.

In other words, our real government (the one we did not elect and cannot un-elect) extorts money from our local councils on the pain of even greater extortion. This cost is being passed onto taxpayers in the form of higher council tax bills to pay for elaborate recycling schemes to reduce general landfill waste. It doesn’t really matter that the contents of your “recycle bin” are shipped off to China to be incinerated; we avoid the fines, so it’s OK.

Thus, it matters not who you voted for in the local elections yesterday, nor who you will vote for at the next Westminster election. Our real government will remain the same, and it is well-insulated from the ballot box. What’s more; they’ll continue to allow local politicians and MPs to take the rap for their decisions; just the way they like it!

We cannot begin to address the problem until we understand the very nature of our new form of government. Perhaps our host can tell us whether a future Conservative administration will scrap the Landfill tax, and ignore the resultant fines from Brussels?

Would you care to explain what you’d do instead about refuse?

Reply: Not impose a bin tax, not spy on people, keep weekly collections, manage refuse contracts to raise standards and reduce costs.

The state exists to server us not the other way round.

We have basic freedoms, best set out almost a thousand years ago in the Magna Carta. New Labour always seems far too willing to trade these for the benefit of bureaucracy, whether it be for rubbish collection, anti-terrorism, welfare benefit adminstration, TV License collection or the spread of CCTV.

Reply: It is Conservative national policy to keep weekly collections, but of course each local Council can make its own decision. Wokingham Conservatives campaigned to keep the weekly collection.

http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com

Unlike the Socialist/Marxist local Councils in parts of London that I have dealt with in the past, if I have a problem with a Council service and contact the local Council the following takes place:

SSDC responds within a day and action is subsequently taken.
By contrast Haringey Planning Dept took 7 months to respond on a planning matter and Lambeth Highways Dept completely ignore correspondence concerning property/access disputes.

SSDC employ staff that are able to speak the Queens English.