THERE has been considerable publicity about the massive changes to waste collection in the City of Stirling.
A recent report in this newspaper included this paragraph: A 2014 Stirling survey found more than 65 per cent of ratepayers did not want the City to convert to skip bins.
The council, which claims to value ratepayers’ input, happily spends their rates on research into an issue that blew up in its face in late 2012 when it halved verge waste collections without any prior consultation with residents.
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READ NOWThe outcry and reams of letters in this newspaper from irate residents, criticising and protesting at that unilateral decision, did not reflect at all well on the council, which should have heeded the clear message: restore four verge collections a year.
This was further borne out in the 2014 survey showing an overwhelming rejection of skip bins, but the City chose to reject the outcome.
If the council was just going to ignore ratepayers unless they endorsed its obvious preference for skip bins, why bother to ask them at all?
This does not reflect well on the so-called City of Choice.
By contrast, ratepayers will have a very strong and definite choice when candidates seek their vote in the local government elections in October this year.
Some sitting councillors up for re-election may just not like the choice ratepayers make but importantly, this time they won’t be able to do anything about it.
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