Local elections: How to tackle scourge of fly-tipping and littering

Part two features the Lib Dems and Conservatives ..

- Nick Sandford (Liberal Democrats)

Liberal Democrats want Peterborough to live up to its aspirations to be the “environment capital” by enabling all residents to live in an environment that is clean and free of pollutants including litter and rubbish and encouraging community spirit and people taking a pride in their area.

The Lib Dems are concerned that too much waste is being incinerated in Peterborough rather than prioritising reduction, re-use and recycling. We will review the future of the waste incinerator in Peterborough and whether this is best for the long-term sustainability of the area.

The council should look to reduce the time taken to clear fly-tipping, reintroduce street cleaners in problem areas and, given the council’s current financial situation, work with parish councils and community groups to increase the number of ‘community litter picks’ happening across our city.

We will also work to reduce fly-tipping by reviewing the unfair and counter-productive “brown bin tax” as we believe that residents should not be penalised for using brown bins. We will introduce a bulky waste collection service giving residents two free collections each year.

Fly-tipping is a serious criminal offence so we would like to see more effort put into finding and prosecuting persistent offenders.

- Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservative Party)

The Conservatives are determined to get on top of littering, fly-tipping and the dumping of bulky waste once and for all.

Since I recently announced a change of policy on this which will see free bulky waste collections return we’ve been inundated with messages of support for our plans to reintroduce this service. Granted there have also been some cries of “it was you lot who stopped it in the first place” let me say here and now that I personally never backed the removal of our free bulky waste collections and, in fact, I voted against it.

But things are different today as we once again control our waste services via Aragon which means we have more of a say on what we can and cannot do.

The Conservatives on the council have been listening hard to the people of Peterborough and what they want us to do is “just get it sorted” and we will do. Unlike the other parties who are clueless with no plan whatsoever.

We believe that the Conservatives are the only team that will deliver this, but only if we remain in control of the city council after the elections on May 6.