Residents of Dartford will be among a diminishing number of British households still able to count on weekly bin collections after Dartford Council confirmed that its service will not be reduced following a consultation with local people.
Council Leader Jeremy Kite has confirmed that weekly kerbside collections will continue to be at the heart of a new waste service contract due to start in 2019.
Jeremy Kite said “There is a huge amount of pressure on councils to abandon weekly bin collections but that pressure comes from just about everybody except the residents who actually pay for them. People tell us time and again that they wish to retain a weekly service and whilst there is a view that reducing the frequency might improve performance against European waste targets the truth is that we’re here to serve the people of Dartford, not anyone else.”
The Council held the third Big Bin Vote in December 2017 and the result revealed that nearly two thirds of participating households wanted the current service to be retained. Legislation requires the final decision to be taken by the Council but Jeremy says he’s grateful for the views of local people who help to ensure the Council provides the services people want in the way they want them.
“The number of responses increased from the last time we held a Big Bin Vote and it’s clear that people took time to carefully consider all the options. We gave them all the facts and they voted by a huge majority to stick with weekly bin collections. We are happy to confirm that a new contract specification will now be drafted to retain weekly kerbside collection and reject any reduction in the frequency of the service.”
Proposals for the new 2019 contract, complete with weekly waste collection, will be presented to Dartford Borough Council’s cabinet within days.
The Third Big Bin Vote took place in December 2017. A total of 2,632 responses were received (up from the 1,793 responses received to BBV2)
The responses were:
Option 1: Residual waste and recycling BOTH collected fortnightly = 282 ( 10.7% )
Option 2: Same as option 1 but with an additional weekly food canister = 689 ( 26.1% )
Option 3: No change. Weekly residual waste and fortnightly recycling. = 1,661 ( 63.1%)
Taken together, votes for Options 1 & 2 total 971, or 36.8% of responses offered.
Almost two-thirds of respondents wished to see the current weekly service retained.