Garden Waste Service Cut ‘a Complete Betrayal’ Of Tory Election Promises

Plymouth Labour is calling the Conservative administration’s decision to stop all garden waste collections a ‘complete betrayal’.

The shock announcement that all garden waste collections will stop after one final pick up in August was made at the meeting of the council’s Conservative cabinet on Thursday. 

The service had already been suspended for four weeks from 18 July.

But the council has made clear Thursday’s decision to completely suspend the service for the rest of the year is to save money.

“The Conservative administration has clearly lost control of the budget and the people of Plymouth are paying the price,” said Cllr Mark Coker, who is Plymouth Labour’s spokesperson on Street Scene and Waste.

“To cancel the service altogether is a complete betrayal of council tax payers and the promises the Conservatives made little more than three months ago. This shocking decision has hit us today with no dialogue with the council’s official opposition, so what other services are in the pipeline for the chop? With weeds and litter blighting our communities this decision will not help our residents at all.

“The Conservatives made efficient delivery of services like garden waste collections a key plank of their election campaign promising they could run things better than Labour – it hasn’t taken long for it to become clear this isn’t the case.

“People rely on this service and when we were in control of the council the Conservatives made great play of the occasional time we had to delay the service in the middle of a pandemic. 

“Plymouth Labour will be raising questions about this with the relevant cabinet member and urging the Conservatives to get a grip of the budget before our city and our communities are devastated by further cuts.”