I am 1 of the 8
There, I said it...... I am 1 of the 8
What does that mean? I hear you ask. Well, 8 very worried and concerned Conservative Cllrs at Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC) had the audacity to call for a special meeting of Council to debate and vote on the Councils waste strategy instead of it being discussed at an "informal" meeting of Council last week.
That's right - one of the most contentious and arguably the most divisive proposal this Labour Council has made since coming to power in 2015 was about to be swept through without proper debate, without giving residents an opportunity to come to Council and look Cllrs in the eye and without a meaningful vote. Any vote would be non-binding and the decision made elsewhere and "in balance" of comments made at the informal meeting.
Stich up anyone? One lump or two with that? So I, along with 7 others called for a special, F2F meeting of Council. The Labour hounds of incredulity were unleashed upon us.....putting safety of Cllrs and Council employees at risk, the government was accused of "letting people get sick and dying" my one of the more delightful (and shouty) Cabinet members who happens to be the deputy leader of the Council.
Yet Labour run Halton borough Council, next door, across the road, actually held a F2F meeting the night before and all was well. The very same week as "you are going to kill us all" from Labour - two of Winsford's finest Labour Marxist Cllrs announced they were going to open a nightclub......if it looks, like hypocrisy, smells like hypocrisy and walks like hypocrisy then it probably is hypocrisy eh?
But I as 1 of the 8 did not call for this meeting in fun. Oh no.
I have NEVER had so many residents tell me how unpopular any proposal of Council has been compared to this one. Let's put that into context, not the Gypsy and Traveler site proposal in Whitegate, not the maximum Council Tax rises from CWAC Labour EVERY year for the last six years, not the Greedy Pig development, not the 20mph scheme, not the Car Parking Charges, not even the Chester Bus Lanes.....nothing at all has stirred the residents like this. So much so that we conducted a survey.....the results were very interesting indeed
Resident who oppose the Green Bin Tax - 94% - Still Labour didn't listen
Labour voters who oppose the Green Bin Tax - 90% - Still Labour didn't listen
Residents who oppose a move to 3 weekly collections - 83% - Still Labour didn't listen
and we didn't ask residents questions we only wanted to hear the answer to - residents were not "guided" to supply one answer as in a similar fashion to the original consultation on the waste strategy that paid £88,000 in consultancy fees - the original consultation did not even have the courtesy to ask residents if they opposed a proposal of a Green Bin Tax.
Labour's headlong rush to blame the Government for everything is reckless and could mean they will miss out on further funding for mandatory green bin collections.
While everyone goes back to work, while our food and transport workers, our NHS workers and our business owners and shopkeepers meet the challenge of recovering from COVID together, we Cllrs cannot hide in a bunker and we must have scrutiny on key decisions, especially those as unpopular as this.
I called for this meeting on behalf of those who elected me and who will suffer from this new Green Bin Tax - those hard working, tax paying residents of Winsford, those concerned that we look after our environment by not encouraging our residents to burn, dump or place waste into our grey bins, those who simply cannot afford another Tax on their already hefty bills.
I am 1 of the 8
P.S. Despite Labour complaining that the special meeting costing £6000 (I refer you to the consultancy fee above) - the Labour Chairman (lets call him Mao) shut the meeting down with 30 mins to go - proving once again that Labour don't provide value for money
