Weekly bins bid rejected

Bin collections will not return to a weekly service this Christmas after ruling councillors rejected the request.

Labour councillors had asked Cannock Chase Council's cabinet to bring a weekly service back over the festive period - at a cost of £12,000 - to stop the risk of overflowing bins.

But members refused. Council leader Neil Stanley accused the Labour contingent of "playing a silly political game."

He said their proposal was "insane" because the brown bin would be collected on the alternate week and is for food scraps and cardboard anyway.

Councillors had two options - continue alternate weekly collections of green bins and brown bins or suspend brown bin collections for two weeks and have a weekly service collecting all household rubbish over the festive period.Labour councillor Gordon Alcott, expressed his anger at the decision.

He said: "I'm not surprised but bitterly disappointed. I thought they were supposed to be a caring and considerate council who looked at requests and dealt with them accordingly.

"I'm so disappointed that they aren't going to step in to help people who are struggling with overflowing bins and infestations of maggots etc - particularly during the Christmas period."

Councillor Stanley said: "At Christmas the extra waste you get is cardboard, packaging and food - all of which can go in the brown bin. The Labour group were asking us to charge the taxpayers £12,000 to collect the wrong bin."

By Jo Mason