Political

1 in 4 of York’s litter bins to go in Labour council’s cuts

City of York railway station - CC0 Public Domain

Having done my doctorate at York University, news from the city still sometimes catches my eye, especially as York is home to Steve Galloway, one of the long-time party activists who, like colleagues such as Tony Greaves, have been hard at work since the 1970s.

The Labour-run council’s decision to axe 1 in 4 litter bins will hit the centre of York particularly heavily, where half the bins are going.

As Steve puts it on his blog:

Residents have been first mystified and then angry about the way in which the Council has used the excitement surrounding the arrival of the Olympic torch as a smokescreen to spirit away over 33% of the City’s litter and poop scoop bins.

You’d have to be a pretty enthusiastic reader of this web site to have had any advanced notice of their removal.

Across the City 349 bins are being removed from residential areas. In addition, others have been removed from the City centre, although there 1 in 10 are being replaced by larger “big belly” models…

The bins have been removed just before the Olympic torch enters the City. The intense on the street activity associated with this event could, of course, mean much more litter generation.

No doubt some Labour Councillors thought that now was a great time to take their controversial action, believing that the Torch publicity would leave little space for protests about yet another assault on street level public service standards.

(For a flavour of how the Liberal Democrats would do things differently and still make the council finances add up, see the alternative York Council budget.)

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