| NEWS |  | | | | | | AFC WIMBLEDON | | | CRYSTAL PALACE NEWS | | | | COMPETITIONS | | | | | | ON THIS DAY | | | BIZARRE LONDON | | | |
|
|
|
Lib Dems call for truce but Tories have final say on Berrylands recycling plan
The trial in Berrylands to increase recycling collection to weekly has been thrown a lifeline.
Earlier this week the trial looked doomed for the foreseeable future but the Liberal Democrats want to hold a special meeting of the executive after opposition councillors scrutinised the proposals on Tuesday.
If the scrutiny panel approves the pilot or refers it to the executive with amendments, leader Councillor Derek Osbourne said the trial could go ahead on November 13, a week later than planned.
Coun Osbourne said: "We have been looking at ways to prevent the trial being held up. The Tories can do three things at the scrutiny panel. They can say it is fine or they can refer to the executive with comments and ask us to look at things. If they do that we can take the comments or not and go ahead with the trial as planned.
"The third thing is they can send it to full council for debate. If they do refer it could be delayed well into next year."
The Lib Dems want to run the trial in six weeks without bank or school holidays, to allow it to bed in.
Coun Osbourne estimated the first such window would be June.
Conservatives announced last week that the pilot, which would see a wider range of goods picked up for recycling twice as often as now with other refuse collected fortnightly, would have to go before scrutiny. They were dismayed at the lack of notice given by the Lib Dems, particularly as there had been a lengthy review of all waste management issues in September when the pilot was not highlighted as a potential issue.
Conservative leader Councillor Howard Jones said he had tried many times to resolve the situation, only calling it in for scrutiny after the Lib Dems refused to apologise.
He said: "I was flabbergasted to be told Councillor Liz Shard had evidently authorised the commitment of resources, although she must have known what the constitution said about the decision making and implementation process.
"In reality she must have committed resources ahead even of the executive's endorsement of the action she intended to take."
The scrutiny panel will sit at Kingston Guildhall on Tuesday, October 31, with the executive committee planned for the following night.
12:22pm Thursday 26th October 2006
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
