Perhaps Cllr Taylor and the Conservative Group should take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror. How dare they tell the people of Ealing such a bare faced lie about their position on this issue?! As an avid recycler and gardener I do appreciate the issues that people have raised on this forum and elsewhere and I understand that residents, genuine in their beliefs will lobby me and fellow councillors on the issues. However, the position of the Tories beggars belief. They have had ample opportunities to debate this issue and to set out their position on it. Only they don’t know what they want. This petition is both disingenuous and proves their muddled thinking and I’ll explain why:• The Tories decided to “call in” the Cabinet decision to return to a charged garden waste collection, itself a result of the deep cuts of £85m that we are facing as a council.• However at the Call in meeting, the Conservative Shadow Cabinet member Cllr Young (former chair of this panel), chose not ask for the whole decision to be rescinded and reconsidered (his right and he could have taken it to a vote). Instead his position was to ask whether every household could have the additional option of having their garden waste collected from the pink sacks that used to be so popular in the past!. The minutes of the meeting speak for themselves; remember it’s a cross-party committee. Here’s a key line from it:Resolved: (i) That the Committee unanimously agrees to uphold the decisions taken by the Cabinet at its meeting on 13th September, 2011Full minutes can be found here: http://www2.ealing.gov.uk/ealing3/export/sites/ealingweb/services/council/committees/agendas_minutes_reports/scrutiny/overview_and_scrutiny/24may2011-15may2012/_03_nov_2011./Item_5_Minutes_06.10.11_.doc(Item 8 – page 5 onwards)The meeting was described as “The Most Pathetic Call In in Ealing’s history”. (For your information this unanimous decision as recorded by the clerk to the meeting, involved Tory Cllrs Costello, Chapman, Dabrowska, Grant and Sumner). Cllr Millican was also in attendance but unfortunately Cllr Taylor, who was characteristically quiet at the previous meeting was missing in action on this one and so obviously wasn’t brought up to speed with what his colleagues had done.• At the last Full Council meeting in October, The Tories had a second chance to redeem themselves, stand by their principles and ask for the decision to be rescinded. Again the opportunity went begging for some decisive leadership. What we got was a half baked motion which simply asked the council not to go fortnightly on rubbish and recycling: something only Labour made a commitment to in our manifesto put to local residents at the last council elections.• Then last week I received an e-mail rant from the Tory Finance Spokesman on the council. Part of it was a ‘back of a fag packet’ list of things the Tories would change were they to be in charge of the Town Hall. Was Garden Charges on that list? Of course not, if only they had the guts!So, as you will see, the reality is that for all the talk and rhetoric, the Conservatives have had the chance not once, not twice, but three times to take some real action on garden waste charges but on each occasion they have shown residents their true colours.The sad reality is that the Tories like Millican and Young have bottled making the decision because they know that if they did not accept these changes they would have to make one or more of the following choices. I have asked them which one the Conservatives would be inflicting on the people of Ealing... surprisingly despite having had weeks to think it over they have been remarkably silent on this front. I won’t hold my breath for an honest answer.These are the kinds of things that the Conservatives would have to look at doing if they do not take this saving:• Fortnightly collection from compulsory wheelie bins for rubbish and recycling• Reduce street cleaning frequencies to once in every 3 weeks on residential roads• Have a minimal tree management service and have no graffiti and fly tip removals• Closure of all our leisure centres• Switch off of all street lightsThe people of Ealing deserve to know where they stand on this issue because they certainly don’t stand by their word.
Bassam Mahfouz ● 5296d