A petition has been set up calling on Tameside Council to restore fortnightly recycling bin collections or reduce residents' Council Tax. 

The authority implemented changes from 31 January which involved reducing black bin (glass, plastic bottles and cans) and blue (paper and cardboard) bin collections from every two weeks to every three weeks.

A charge of £25.63 has also been introduced for replacement or additional recycling bins. 

The council has previously said that the changes were being made to help protect limited funds for vital services and are in line with many other areas of Greater Manchester. 

It comes as Council Tax is set to rise by 2.99 per cent in Tameside from April, which will see residents pay at least £31 more a year.

Tameside resident Glenn Taylor started an online petition on Change.org, which has so far been signed by more than 500 people.  

He told the Reporter: "After months and months of failed bin collections by Tameside Council, they have forged ahead and made a significant change to our bins being collected every three weeks instead of every two weeks. 

"Most of the 19 ward areas in Tameside were not coping with the two-week collections. Significant amounts of people raised complaints using the TMBC app to complain about missed bin collections, but with no resolution from them. 

"Their failed pilot scheme disproportionately only used a significantly small number of residents in this pilot. When there are over 227,117 residents, only 889 responded in the pilot over three areas. That's not what I would call a consultation. 

"Worse than this, the concerns raised and issues raised from the pilot have been ignored and the council have gone ahead, not on a recycling basis, but purely to save money.

"They have demonstrated no interest in the chaos they are causing by missing bins, but also when residents report this, they have been told 'they can’t come back, you’ll have to wait until your next collection in three weeks time!'

"How can this be? We, the taxpayers, pay Council Tax. The council use part of our 'taxpayers money' to fund a percentage to waste services. They have increased our bills but have now reduced the service again. Why are we paying this on our bill?" 

A council spokesperson said the Executive Cabinet took the decision in December to make the changes following a successful pilot in three trial areas in the borough and after reviewing feedback from extensive consultations both with households within the pilot and the wider public.

The authority says it has to make savings of another £23 million this financial year to balance the budget for 2021/22. 

It is estimated that by introducing the charge for replacement/additional recycling bins, it will generate/save £190k a year, while collecting blue and black recycling bins every three weeks rather than two is estimated to save £370k a year.

Both these strategies will help safeguard vital services such as supporting vulnerable children and adults, a council spokesperson added. 

Tameside Council Executive Member Cllr Allison Gwynne commented: “We, like every other council in the country, are under enormous pressure to make financial savings because of Government cuts to our budget. At the same time, we still need to safeguard funds for services that are valued the most by residents and in particular supporting and protecting vulnerable children and adults. Doing nothing to make efficiencies is not an option.

"The changes we’ve agreed have been shown to work very well operationally in the pilot areas – with no negative impact on collections - but we have also listened to residents’ feedback and included provision for extra bin capacity for larger households and a fee waiver for new bins in certain circumstances.

"The approach of reducing collection frequency of recycling bins to provide the efficient use of resources brings Tameside in line with numerous other Greater Manchester authorities, where again it has proven to work well.

"Ultimately, the changes will make a huge difference in saving limited funds so we can keep delivering vital services. This is an opportunity for everyone to get involved and positively help shape a sustainable and effective service for the future. Please do look out for your new collection calendar and get ready for the changes." 

To view the petition, click here: https://chng.it/cTvYhc4k

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