Haringey’s Labour Council could be about to concede that in some areas they may have to go back to weekly rubbish collections, after months of Lib Dem campaigning on the issue.

The Lib Dems have long argued that some areas are not suitable for fortnightly rubbish collections and that the council needed to change its one size fits all policy and recognise that different areas have different collection requirements.

The potential change in policy was mooted at the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The proposal for change was made by the Lib Dem Vice-Chair and gained cross party support.

The Council’s Labour Cabinet is due to discuss the idea when it meets next week on the 13^th November. If Cabinet agrees the recommendation then weekly rubbish collections could be re-introduced in some areas where there are exceptional circumstances, like the Miltons area of Highgate.

Cllr David Winskill, Lib Dem Vice-Chair of the Council’s watchdog committee, comments:

“While many parts of the borough have had a relatively smooth transition to fortnightly collections there are significant hotspots where residents have been experiencing massive disruption and inconvenience because it is simply not possible to store adequate number of wheelie bins off the pavement.

“Adding the option of weekly collections as a last resort would give Haringey no excuse for their failure to resolve these difficulties.”

Lynne Featherstone, Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, comments:

“In many cases fortnightly collections simply do not work – and Labour would have known this had they consulted residents properly in the first place. Many streets are littered with overflowing bins and rotten rubbish and some have far too many bins, which is ruining the look of the street.

“One such case is the Miltons area in Highgate. Highgate Councillor Rachel Allison and I forced a meeting with officials last week. We fought for weekly collections and an end to ‘one size fits all’ bins in streets like those in the Miltons. I will keep pushing the Labour-run Council on this until we can be proud of our streets and I encourage residents to contact me if they feel they should have weekly rubbish collections again.”