18 December (Part 1) - Con and Don
At
the last Cabinet meeting on 14th October, cabinet member Don Massey announced that he
plans to charge for garden waste collection. It’s a bit of a con trick
because getting householders to separate garden from kitchen waste will make it
more valuable. At the Places Scrutiny meeting a week later
Massey said separation would save the council £444,000. So it’s a win win for him.
He will charge residents for what has always been included in the council tax
charge and he will sell the stuff for more money. Genius eh?
Massey went on to ridicule Bromley council which charges £60 a year to empty
their 240 litre bins - that’s twenty five pence a litre per year if you fill it
up and that’s easy enough because they encourage neighbours to share. See
leaflet extract shown.
Massey thought that
£35 a year would be a reasonable charge in Bexley, Bromley
is a bit of a rip off he implied and probably he is right.
So it’s out for consultation that Bexley council will introduce another stealth
tax. Forget the consultation bit, as the library closure campaigners found out
last night, all these things are settled well in advance of any consultation, no
Conservative councillor will ever listen to residents, and I say that having
studied the results of every consultation since 2010. Nothing ever changes.
“Listening to you, working for you’ is another of Teresa O’Neill’s lies.
So why is this blog entitled Con and Don (Massey)? Err… it’s because he is
trying to con you into thinking he might be a decent human being, considerate of
your wallet. He may be talking about reducing Bromley’s £60 waste collection
charge to £35 but Bexley only provides 140 litre bins. So that’s twenty five
pence a litre per year. Exactly the same as in Bromley. Do yourself a favour.
Never ever believe a word that any Bexley Conservative councillor says.
Whether Bexley encourages neighbours to work together is not yet known, but
unless neighbours share, Bexley will prove to be much more expensive than
Bromley and one household will not be able to fill a bin every week. Bromley has
cheaper council tax and lower car parking charges so cheaper bins will not come
as any great surprise. It has ‘cheaper’ top salaries too. Maybe there is a connection.