Last week’s Frome Standard carried a letter from Mr Alan Townsend (who criticised cllr Derek Tanswell (Lib Dem, Frome Market ward) for his letter the week before). My response this week is below:

“Dear Editor

In response to Alan Townsend’s letter last week, I have to say that cllr Tanswell is not at all to blame for the closure of Coleford recycling centre. As a Coleford parish councillor Mr Townsend should know that Somerset Waste Board met in February 2014 (see www.somerset.gov.uk) when the Conservative-dominated Board voted for the closure of Coleford tip for financial reasons. This ignored the benefits to the community of keeping it open, against objections from the Mendip reps on the Board and local councillors, and previous cross-party campaigns to save it over many years.

I support cllr Tanswell’s statement that Lib Dem councillors’ campaigns helped the Conservatives in charge of Somerset do a U-turn on the opening hours for the bigger recycling centres.  In April 2011 Tory Somerset County Council’s cuts to its recycling budget forced Somerset Waste Partnership to close Frome and other recycling centres 2 days a week, and introduced new charges, which made it more expensive and inconvenient to recycle. Local Lib Dem MPs and councillors, and even Eric Pickles, warned this would lead to more flytipping. They were right, as the year after, flytipping increased by over 50% across Somerset and 20% in Mendip, when nationally it was falling.

In autumn 2012, I and other Lib Dem councillors asked Mendip to get Somerset County Council to review its policy of cuts, to stop the rise in flytipping. Mendip’s Tory councillors all noisily voted down our motion in a very heated debate. Lib Dems also asked at County directly in December 2012 but were also outvoted by the Tories. So when last year flytipping in Mendip was at its highest ever level with over 1800 incidents, 30% higher than before April 2011, I was not surprised. This is not a legacy for local Conservatives to be proud of. I think that the fuss we made, and the evidence of the impacts, led to the welcome U-turn and a return to 7 day opening in Frome and other larger sites from April with an official admission that this would ‘contribute to efforts … to drive down flytipping’!  However the county council cuts still led to the closure of Coleford, despite local protests, and should not have happened. Rather than bizzarely blaming Derek, it is the Conservatives who run Somerset County Council who slashed the waste management budget, and the Conservative majority on the county Waste Board who voted to close Coleford tip, that Mr Townsend should really hold to account.

Adam Boyden, Frome Town and Mendip District Councillor, Frome College ward (Lib Dem)”

My previous writings about recycling centres and flytipping can be found here. Somerset Waste Board’s meetings, including agenda, reports and minutes of the February 2014 meeting referred to above, are here.