Could issues with rubbish endanger Labour’s gains in the local elections

Back in 2016 the Ealing council (like many other councils in London) instituted wheelie bins for the borough and switched to an alternate/fortnightly collection of rubbish.

According to Ealing’s council website the reasoning was “Wheelie bins make it easier to recycle and stop foxes and rats ripping open sacks. This will help to keep our streets cleaner”.

Now back in 2015 this caused quite a big controversy because a petition was made to try and stop this from happening, it gained some 3015 signatures but the policy was implemented anyway.

Another point of contention was that (like other boroughs where this policy has been implemented) the council did not consult locals properly before enacting this decision. Also just like everywhere else this policy was implemented, fly tipping became noticeably more common.

There are however exceptions to this policy as if you live in a property with a front boundary or if your household is deemed unsuitable for wheelie bins then you have an option to opt out in favour of “black sacks”.

Despite these complaints in 2017 Ealing predominantly voted for Labour. For the 2018 elections in London, bins are once again at the forefront of political debate in London’s local administrations, the disastrous outsourcing policies at Sutton could cause the Lib Dem stronghold to be ousted.

One party taking advantage of the controversy in Ealing is the Lib Dems and like many local Tory parties in London, bins have become a selling point for their manifesto. They were strongly against the 2016 change citing that it would cost the tax payer some £3 million and it has not made the streets cleaner by most accounts.

One of Labour’s councillors, Bassam Mahfouz admitted there was a flaw to the policy “Whilst the Tories and Lib Dems in government slashed Ealing Council’s budget by almost 60%, Labour has continued to increase recycling rates”.

A lot of locals are worried that the expense will outweigh the benefit, it could be possible that this might cause Labour some setbacks in the upcoming local elections.