Shropshire Council’s cabinet meets a week tomorrow to make many critical decisions. Many have been delayed by the election.
One of the most important was the decision not to close Household Recycling Centres, including Craven Arms. This was always a daft proposal. It never stacked up financially. It threw Shropshire Council’s recycling and climate targets into the garbage bin. And it stacked communities and MPs, including Conservative MPs, against a Conservative run council.
The five HRCs will close for at least one day, possibly two, a week. Wednesday and Thursday are the preferred days. Those using the HRCs will need to book a slot. People outside the county will not be able to use the HRCs. We will know further details shortly.
The petition against closure of the Craven Arms HRC, instigated by Ludlow Lib Dems (though we did not mention that to keep it non-political), reached more than 8,000 signatures. We invited the local Conservatives to join the campaign but they ignored the request. Very soon, they will be claiming they saved Craven Arms HRC. They didn’t. You did.
It was the Conservatives that created this crisis. It was always obvious that hours of operation of HRCs would have to be cut given the council’s dire financial situation. It appears that consultants and officers recommended the closure of three out of five recycling centres. When this appeared for approval at full council, the council leadership seems to have been caught by surprise (it’s not the first time). The leadership immediately began backtracking. But there was no need to stir up protest, cause angst and create a lot of correspondence. The outcome we are going to get should have been the starting point of the consultation process not the end point.
The council did not take account of the petitions to save Craven Arms or other HRCs. These have not yet been presented to the council (though they have been submitted). However, the council knew about them and that is bound to have influenced decision-making.
I’ll publish more details on this and other decisions in the next couple of days.
Sanity prevails for once. There was no way in the world someone like me, who lives just outside Clun, would undertake a 60 mile round trip to Shrewsbury to dispose of a broken kettle or toaster. More common sense like this required!
I wonder how much those ‘consultants’ have been paid. Can’t the council members make a decision for themselves, using good old common sense without some pen pusher holding their hands?
So what about food waste recycling -? not allowed in the new garden waste bins….., and conveniently ignored by Violia?
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