Local Liberal Democrats condemn council's rubbish handling

Aberavon and Neath Liberal Democrats were informed at their meeting last night that Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council was apparently alone in Wales in not arranging for "catch-up" refuse collections, following yesterday's strike by Unison members. We were also reminded that Neath Port Talbot has the second-highest council tax in Wales, and recently wasted £733,000 on replacing existing wheelie-bins with lower-capacity ones. (The council has not even recouped any of this expenditure by selling on the superseded bins, but instead has rendered them unusable.)

Thus not only will householders have to store a further fortnight's rubbish, but will also have a smaller bin to put it in. Families will have to resort to piling up black bags beside the bins, with all the dangers to hygiene that entails.

It has been noted that the council recommended the use of real nappies instead of disposables, but still had not followed Swansea City Council in providing a nappy collection service, as local campaigner Helen Ceri Clarke has urged.