Royal Borough weekly black bin petition reaches 2,000 signatures

An online petition calling for the council to scrap its plans to get rid of weekly black bin collections has attracted more than 2,000 signatures.

The petition was started by former Tory councillor Ed Wilson after the Royal Borough included plans to drop the weekly collection as part of its 2021/22 budget.

The council hopes to save millions in its next budget through a number of alterations to services.

It recently received criticism, along with waste contractor Serco, for the way weekly waste collections were handled after the first lockdown.

Mr Wilson said: “Our council promised to reinstate weekly collections in July, messed them up in August and September, then a few weeks later they tell us that we don’t need weekly black bin collections after all.

“Residents don’t know what the council’s real intentions are and who could blame them? For me this is the first step to scrapping weekly bin collections in the Royal Borough”.

Mr Wilson is planning to force a full debate on his petition ‘at the earliest opportunity’, and it can be found by visiting petitions.rbwm.gov.uk/KeepWeeklyBins/

In response, Cllr David Coppinger (Con, Bray) the council’s lead member for waste, said: “I regret to say that Mr Wilson has totally misunderstood what we are doing.

“The only change we are proposing is moving the black bin collection from weekly to fortnightly, in line with approximately 80 per cent of councils across the country.

“Residents are now recycling more and more, and this will [generate] more recycling.

“I welcome all petitions, but I regret they are being misled.”

Cllr Coppinger added that a virtual overview and scrutiny panel on Monday will address the issue of waste further.