Mark Jenkinson MP has branded a Cumberland Council consultation into waste collection a “sham” after its leadership has chosen to ignore feedback.
Mark wrote to the authority’s Chief Executive, copying in all councillors, on 1st March to express concerns that the public questionnaire – the Waste Collection Public Engagement Survey – was “confused and confusing”, with at least one of the questions potentially misleading.*
He invited the council to amend the online exercise in the interests of clarity and transparency, drawing attention to the poor and muddled wording around the future of weekly bin collections, recycling services, and garden waste.
Mark advised council chiefs that important questions around vital public services should be “clear, accessible, and easy to understand”, particularly after previous bin strikes had already undermined public faith in waste collection.
He urged the council to fix the issues identified and to re-run the survey, but it has so far refused to make any changes whatsoever to the format or wording.
Mark said: “If the local authority won’t address basic, well-intentioned concerns about their questionnaire, how can we be sure they are listening to rate payers who take the time and make the effort to complete its surveys?
“The short answer is, ‘we can’t’. By rejecting constructive feedback, this council has demonstrated that it doesn’t care what Joe Public thinks. My suspicion is that leading members and officers have already made up their minds what they want to do – and are simply going through the motions when it comes to public engagement.
“The leadership will railroad through charges for garden waste, and the loss of weekly waste collections across Allerdale – but first they need to be able to say they have asked your opinion.
“Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that they are listening. Indeed, the approach so far suggests they are simply sticking their fingers in their ears and saying ‘la la la’.
“Public confidence and trust in Cumberland Council is at a low ebb, particularly when it comes to our waste services – and I fear that this dog’s dinner of a consultation will do nothing to restore it.
“Meanwhile, my own constituents can be assured that I will listen to them – and that I will fight any steps taken to slash services based on the lie that the local authority, which now has record levels of Government funding, is short of cash. The real deficit appears to be in common sense, competence, and communication.”
