BY ANDREW CLARKE

Published at 11:10, Thursday, 26 July 2012

RESIDENTS of a group of off-route properties have raised major concerns about having to transport their rubbish to the nearest roadside for collection.

WHY DO WE PAY OUR COUNCIL TAX? Four of the householders at Kirkland who are angry at the council's plans to change their home refuse collections. From the left, Roger and Christine Parker and Peter and Marjorie Maher.

Peter Maher says he and his nine neighbours on a lonning near Kirkland will have to move their rubbish almost a mile to be collected – if Copeland Council’s communal collection proposal is introduced.

“It’s an unreasonable expectation of residents, especially the elderly, that they transport their rubbish that far,” he said. “Journeys, mostly by car, to transport the rubbish, will have a cost and damage the environment. The rubbish from 10 households will accumulate at the lonning end; how often will it be collected from there?

“Bags of rubbish will be split, scavenged by animals and damaged by weather, and there’s the unsightly accumulation of rubbish, which encourages fly-tipping.”

The council has revealed that the 700 properties with off-route collections take 90 seconds per home. An example has been given of a cluster of nine off-route homes taking a total of 19 minutes to collect at a cost of £20.90.

Copeland has put forward two options in the consultation to cut down on this time:

that collections for ALL off-route properties be made from the edge of the nearest roadside, or

where collection time off-route takes more than an average of one minute per property (the average is 20 seconds), it is proposed that collections will change to the edge of the nearest roadside.

The choice of type of wheelie bin or bags used for these collections will be determined by specific circumstances and agreed locally with affected residents.

A small number of off-route residents in Copeland already have to take their rubbish to the roadside if wagons are unable to access their homes.

Mr Maher added: “As a rural resident I see very little of the infrastructure or services enjoyed by town dwellers.

“No roads or pavements, no street lights, no mains drainage, no drain or street cleansing, no gas supply, no public transport, no access to a public telephone – and the cessation of doorstep collections of rubbish will be one further step challenging the sustainability of our rural community.

“Refuse collection is the only council service that we can actually use and so we believe that we are heavily subsidising town dwellers. Nearly £2,000 a year is a lot to pay for your bins to be emptied.”

Dave Polehill, clerk of Gosforth Parish Council, said: “It is almost inevitable that some sections of the community will find itself on the wrong end of what is proposed.

“We have a significant proportion of elderly citizens, and I am sure that the parish council will do its utmost to ensure that they are not unnecessarily inconvenienced or put an enhanced risk in the name of efficiency.”

Copeland borough councillors David Moore and Yvonne Clarkson, whose patches of Seascale and Beckermet respectively cover a number of off-route homes, have expressed concern.

“It’s often elderly people who live at off-route properties down a country lane, because they’ve lived there all their lives,” said Coun Moore.

“What if someone was to slip and fall while transporting their rubbish – often up to a mile away. Who would be liable?”

Coun Clarkson added: “These people often pay higher council taxes, and they deserve to be getting the waste collection service. We owe them that, as they don’t benefit from a lot of the services that other residents do.”

Anne Bradshaw, chair of Copeland Disability Forum, said: “CDF members have been assured that disabled people living in ‘off route areas’ will still be offered the Assisted Collection Service.

“We welcome this and feel this will be vital for disabled people in rural areas.”

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk