MARK Jenkinson MP has renewed calls on Labour leaders to end “bin chaos” as Allerdale residents head into the fifth week of strike disruption.
Refuse workers in the former Allerdale district want wage parity with their colleagues in the former Copeland and Carlisle council areas.
But the new council is digging its heels in – and has so far refused to give in to their demands.
Cumberland Council, which took over last month, has also hiked council tax in Allerdale by almost seven percent.
This hike raises more than £2.1m from Allerdale every year – more than enough to pay refuse workers a fair wage.
It seems Labour is happy to harmonise council tax at the highest possible level, but they don’t apply the same logic to staff wages or the service that ratepayers receive.
Those paying more council tax could reasonably expect to see a corresponding improvement in services, but what my constituents have had so far is a significant reduction.
No recycling whatsoever has been collected and even some priority black bins are going uncollected, with concerns raised by my constituents over rats.
This bin chaos, which the council could easily end today, represents a clear risk to human health. The Labour leadership is putting greed and an unwillingness to lose face ahead of the wellbeing and health of the people they were elected to serve.
I sincerely hope that this farce is not thin end of the wedge, or a prelude to Cumberland moving to fortnightly bin collections.
Cumberland told us it ‘was important that all Cumberland residents pay the same for the services they receive’.
Yet our bins aren’t being collected because we don’t get the same services from Cumberland Council, and nor are our binmen receiving the same pay for doing the same job.
Surely, if people are going to pay the same rate of council tax for services, then, by the same token, the people who deliver those services should expect the same pay for doing the same job.
Indeed, In March, Barbara Cannon, Cumberland Council’s Executive Member - Financial Planning and Assets, was reported as saying ‘On balance we believe it is important to ensure that all residents in the Cumberland area pay the same, per council tax band, for the services that Cumberland delivers’*
Mark Jenkinson MP
*www.itv.com/news/border/2023-03-03/cumberland-council-budget-announced-for-new-authority
