Council leaders look set to press ahead with the next phase of rolling out wheelie bins and food waste caddies in the New Forest despite calls to pause the programme.
The district council’s launch of the new waste service in Lymington, Brockenhurst and New Milton has been met with issues, including missed collections and animals getting into the bins.
However, the Conservative administration has rejected calls to suspend the next phase of the scheme for areas that are served by the Ringwood depot, which is due to start next month.
Cllr Geoffrey Blunden, portfolio holder for environment and sustainability, said: “I believe pausing at this stage does nothing.
“I am firmly focused and so are the officers on resolving the problems that we have at the moment. That is the priority.”
Cabinet members approved allocating £150,000 to support a temporary change in collection policy for pannage.
Residents in areas open to livestock, known as the perambulation, will be advised to put their food waste caddies behind gates on collection days.
The ‘behind gate’ policy will be trialled during the pannage where pigs are released into the Forest, which starts on Monday, September 15, this year.
Council officers will work on producing a business case to extend this measure beyond this period.
The subject of the waste collections came before cabinet on Wednesday, September 3, following an extraordinary full council meeting last week where residents and elected members voice their concerns and frustrations about the roll out to date.
Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Malcolm Wade spearheaded a group of opposition councillors in tabling a motion calling for the programme to be halted before the next two phases take place so lessons could be learned and mitigation actions put in place.
“I understand this council is reacting to the issue,” Cllr Wade said.
“I get that, but clearly the fact we have had unbudgeted expenditure, and we have had a whole plethora of issues since the start of phase one, part of this process has not been planned properly or we wouldn’t have these problems, would we?”
Portfolio holder for finance and corporate Cllr Jeremy Heron said he believed a pause would cost the council at least £2.5million.
Deputy leader Cllr Steve Davies said phase one had been “pretty much largely a success”.
“There are some errors that have been made in some areas of the Forest in phase one where they have not been correctly serviced,” Cllr Davies said.
“Everyone knows that, we accept that and changes have been put in place to correct that.
“I think we need to accept that and move on.
“Phase two and three will benefit from what phase one has learned, not necessarily pleasantly learned, but we have learned.”
Cllr Derek Tipp, portfolio holder for planning and economy, added: “I think we have got to keep calm here.
“There is absolutely no need to panic.
“We should have confidence that all issues are being addressed and no scheme of this size and complexity is going to be perfect ever.
“We will still have some issues to resolve but I think that it’s perfectly right that we should continue.”
Cabinet recommended full council endorse its resolutions to proceed with phase two and three as planned when it meets on Monday, September 15.
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