I do believe CEC’s idea of cancelling all green bin collections for four months in order to improve efficiency is stroke of pure genius.
This will be an integral part of any business studies course for decades to come.
Ceasing collections when leaves fall avoids that costly surge in demand and presents customers with the alternative of taking their own garden waste to the tip.
This will give residents the confidence to handle other waste products like cardboard, glass and plastic facilitating an extension of the four month moratorium to six or seven with the resultant improvement in efficiency.
Obviously, residents are going to need permits for repeated access to the tip.
This administration does not come without cost.
Nevertheless, a small increase (e.g. five per cent) in council tax should suffice.
The same system could then be introduced in other areas like roads where residents can fill in potholes in their area and pay the extra charge by direct debit.
Similarly children’s services could be trimmed to exclude the third child in any family. Schools may extend their Christmas holiday period to encompass Easter thus avoiding those cold winter months when heating bills rocket.
For the elderly this new policy offers endless opportunities for increased efficiency. Instead of ‘meals on wheals’ why not ‘meals in fields’ where pensioners can collect berries, mushrooms and pignut?
All that stretching and bending in the open air is far cheaper (sorry, healthier) than providing a day care centre but obviously, there will be a cost.
Withdrawing services consumers have paid for is a brilliant innovation rarely seen outside of Watchdog. Together with switching off street lights it marks one of the most audacious ‘efficiency’ drives ever seen outside the Eastern Bloc.
