'Waste chaos - Tories warned in advance' - Longton

10.42.35am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 8th Jul 2008

Lib Dem Waste spokesman Royce Longton has slammed the Conservative Council for the problems mounting up in the new waste collection service.

"The state of chaos in West Berkshire's waste collection service continues unabated, more than three months into the new contract with Veolia," explained Councillor Longton. "We are still getting daily reports of inaccurate information being provided to residents, of containers not yet delivered, of waste piling up because of missed collections, of garbage blowing around in the streets....... The list goes on and on, despite the complacent statements from Councillor Geoff Findlay on behalf of the Council's Tory administration".

This is all the more frustrating to Councillor Longton as he alerted the administration to possible problems as far back as September 2007. "I alerted Councillor Findlay some months ago to a report I had received describing a similar situation when Veolia took over waste collection in another area," said Councillor Longton. "It is scandalous that this warning was ignored. Not only this, but I urged him to ensure that the publicity surrounding the new collections was of the highest calibre. He has failed on both counts."