Last week Cllr Greg Smith reported on a Hammersmith and Fulham consultation on scrapping weekly dustbin collections.
The consultation said of waste collections:
“It is evident that with the financial reductions that are due over the next few years, there will be a further challenge to maintain services.”
Now the council has retreated after an outcry from local residents. In a statement it has “reaffirmed” it will maintain weekly bin collections.
That is good news. But the Council’s claim that it never contemplated abandoning weekly bin collections is not plausible. Otherwise why on Earth would they have consulted on the proposal in the first place?
This duplicitous conduct is no way to treat residents – who have already suffered from a disgraceful deterioration in street cleaning. The Council should just admit that they made a mistake and accept that their proposal was unacceptable.
Congratulations are due to Cllr Charlie Dewhirst on his hard work alerting residents associations to the consultation – a document the Council had proved curiously reluctant to publicise.
Hammersmith and Fulham Forum 
Of course they were contemplating reductions to bin collections and street sweeping and it is highly disingenuous to claim otherwise. It’s what Labour councils do.
If you look at the consultation they uploaded on the council website you were invited to rank, in preference, cuts to bin collections, street sweeping, pavement sweeping and fly-tip removal. There was no option to rank “No cuts at all”. So, with bin collections now off the agenda they will just reduce the others.
I guess this is what happens when council’s feel they can’t increase council tax. I would suggest council’s start worrying more about improving services and less about freezing taxes.