The Peterborough plant was key to the bid due to capacity issues, ie it was the only one that could handle the amount of waste. Waterbeach was involved in the process as a specialist recycler of black bin waste.

Whose fault is it that we are still ill-informed about what the Council is up to?!

I talked to Cllr Pitt last night. The plan now is for the substance of
the answer to be put out as a press release so you should get to see it
one way or another.

I have to say that your web site is as ill-informed on this subject as on
others.

Colin Rosenstiel

Due to a time limit on oral questions this was not addressed during the meeting. I wrote to Cllr Rosensteil afterwards:

Cllr Rosenstiel,

I was disappointed that your oral question to Cllr Pitt did not get answered at the full council meeting yesterday.

Your question covered some of the same ground as the public question I asked at the Environment Scrutiny Committee on the 6th of October:

While I am aware the chair did not ask executive councillors to reply directly to those who asked questions which remained unanswered at last night’s meeting I am writing to ask if you would be prepared to send me a copy of any response you may get from Cllr Pitt.

I also have written to Cllr McPherson asking him if he is able to ask for, and get published, the responses to the unanswered oral questions.

Regards,

Dear Mr Taylor

Further to your question at Environment Scrutiny Committee on 6 October, I confirm that the procurement for the Mixed Recycling Facility (MRF), transport and bulking for dry recyclables was undertaken with our partners at Huntingdonshire and Fenland District Councils using Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) as the authorities procurement agent. The process was governed by the Public Contract Regulations 2006.

I am arranging for a copy of the Invitation to Tender Document to be forwarded to you and expect that you will receive this next week.

Yours sincerely

Simon Payne
Director of Environment and Planning
Cambridge City Council

But it’s certainly true that they’ve been making a profit out of this for a long time. This happened to me when I lived in a shared house in Romsey about 10 years ago after we forgot to bring the bin back in and it got stolen.

I did wonder what happened to our bin, as it was presumably being used by one of our neighbours (rather than sold on the “black market”, as the CEN is suggesting may be happening in Chesterton). I’ve noticed several bins where one address has obviously been painted over and another has been added instead.

Given the way that bins are left randomly strewn around the street after collection day, it’s not surprising if a few end up in the wrong back gardens. I guess this is why so many people feel the need to paint their house number on their bin.

If my bins belong to me rather than the Council then it does raise some interesting questions about the City Council’s proposed enforcement action against people who put the wrong items in the wrong bins. Exactly what law would I be prosecuted under if I left too much food residue on a tin placed in my (own) new blue bin?

Cllr Pitt justified the arrangement saying: “This policy has been in place for some years.” That’s a really poor reason to do, or keep doing, anything.

The figures should be made public because the people who paid the money - that is, all of us — can then :

1. See how much our council is spending when compared to other councils and compare that to the amounts recycled.
2. Compare how much our council is spending when compared to previous years and see whether we’re doing better or worse
3. See whether any other bidder stands up and complains that they bid lower/ provided more services etc. but didn’t get selected.

Not being told how much money is being spent on our behalf is akin to going to a shop, picking an item off the shelves and just handing your wallet to the shopkeeper saying “Just take what you think is fine. Don’t bother telling me how much you took.”