The Fight is Not Over Yet!
Posted by westfield on March 25, 2009
Well wheelie bins were issued this morning in the lower part of Westfield.
This fight is not over. A public meeting is to be held within the Community Halls in Westfield on Monday 6th April 2009 at 7.30pm. I would advise that you attend. Hopefully I will have discovered who has backed this and who has stayed silent.
I have contacted Cathie Craigie’s office and they say that she is 100% behind the residents of Westfield in her opposition to wheeled bins. She has asked for a meeting with NLC. I also spoke to her administrative assistant and she informed me that NLC told Councillor Chadha that the issue of wheeled bins would not be going ahead until after NLC had met with our elected officials. Well guess who is telling porkies again?
I have also contacted Allan O’Brien who was an unhappy man this morning and has arranged a meeting with NLC officials for later this week.
I am still waiting for Councillor McCulloch to respond on this issue, I just wonder what his silence means?
I appreciate the support from our elected members but I want to see some action.
It doesn’t take Einstein to realise that Wheelie bins are not the answer in Westfield but NLC are Hell bent on imposing them, so much so that they will stoop to deplorable depths of dishonesty and guile. If recycling was the issue then I am positive that we could have sat round a table and come up with a workable solution. But no, NLC want everything their own way and stuff the local residents. Now, normally I would be campaigning for the heads of our elected members but at present I do not know who has backed this initiative. I have been told that it was unanimously supported by the ruling group within the council. I have therefore written to Councillor McCulloch, who so far has been silent on this matter, to let me know before the public meeting. I do sincerely hope that it is only the unelected jobsworths employed within NLC and their senior management that are behind this situation. However, when I find out I will let you know.
I spoke to :o) the NLC employees who were issued with orders last week to deliver these bins to our houses and they told me that the grey ones are also being delivered. What I would love to know is – Who is in Charge here? NLC have again misled our councillors and also misled our MSPs. I will also be contacting the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman for their advice.
Unhappy Westfield said
The history of wheelie bins in this area has been well documented. We were told some years ago by both the former and current councils that this area was not suitable for the bins. A few years ago after much public discontent the proposals were withdrawn (after the bins had been purchased). But a short space of time was allowed to let things calm down and would you believe it a pilot scheme appeared.
I am sure that those who took the bins at that time were and are quite happy with them and share everyones wish to recycle in an appropriate manner. From my observations these were a very limited minority of households and in the main those houses with a reasonable amount of space to store the bins.
So what about the rest of us – apparently we have been surveyed by “Waste Education Officers”!
If 96% of residents are in agreement, why are NLC staff telling us about how difficult a week they have had with the public? Surely they cannot all have had to respond to that 4% of terrible people who don’t want a stack of bins at their front door or under the living room window? if so many of us are quite happy, there would be no need to talk about the huge amount of unrest among residents – something does not ring true.
A proper survey requires a stratified sample of the population to be identified with the same question(s) being asked to all respondents to give a statistically valid result. What we have had are a few guys at the door agreeing that it won’t work, asking what we think and not taking any notes – so how can Ken Wilson be “absolutely certain” about this issue.
I have been told by NLC staff that the refuse sacks have been banned by the European Union and this is why the bins are being issued. It would appear that this is simply not true. Two MEPs have confirmed this (with such sacks currently being used in Brussels for street collection) and two Land Services managers have confirmed this verbally. So if the “Waste Education Officers” are misinforming us, what and who else are they misinforming?
I was also told that our elected members were aware of the deliveries taking place and that we should take it up with them.
I have also been told it doesn’t matter if there is nowhere appropriate to keep the bins “we just deliver them, it’s up to you to find somewhere to put them”. By the way, one bin obstruct my path, two will not let me get in the house – unless I redesign the open space at my front door (at my expense) – but with a lack of notification I have not even been given time to arrange this.
When asked about the lack of consultation I was told “we consulted with people four years ag0″ and “consultation is not negotiation”. Take from this what you will, but it all just points toward a lack of courtesy and respect for residents of this area.
Unhappy Westfield said
Following yesterdays public meeting – with its pre-determined outcome and some negative body language from certain officials. I observed the bin men this morning. We were told that lifting bin bags is a health and safety issue and that the wheelie bins are the answer to this. This morning I witnessed the collection of grey sacks (it seems in advance of the blue bins) and one of my neighbours has a grey wheelie bin. was this wheeled to the bin truck? No. the lid was opened at the front door of the house and the grey sack removed and carried by the bin man to the truck. Surely with proper protective equipment, if the bin men are lifting “residual Waste” sacks from the very bins that have already been provided, surely blue bags (as requested by those attending the meeting last night) should be provided.
Allan Devlin said
people of westfield do we have any quantity suveyors opposed to the mandatory wheeled bins in westfield area to give us some advice we would be most gratefull please email or phone me also newsletter sent to residents about public meeting by nlc unsigned they say it was difficult to hear its seems to me that the only people not to hear where the unelected officials they did not answer peoples fears but contiued their mantra that statistics were correct residents who carried out their own survey with signatures proved that nlcs survey was a total distortion of true facts im sure that survey carried out by msps cathie craigie and jamie hepburn wil prove this to be so so please return their postal surveys also why are nlc refusing to take back bins as requested by myself and many residents questions must be asked or as it seem public opinion has no value to nlc