There are arround 1000 members and 10000 of threads for you to read and participate in most likely
one of the biggest problems on earth!
http://www.organic-farming.org

Thanks

Paul Harvey
Hinton Avenue
Cambridge

However, in 2007 CCC started planning enforcement (fining people) and clearly will ignore the survey findings as and when they like. This comes from:

Waste Management Service Plan 2006/07 Roger Coey

a) Utilise appropriate new powers contained in the Clean
Neighbourhood and Environment Act 2005 related to waste
31 March
2007
Fixed Penalty Notice Policy is going to Strategy
Scrutiny Committee in the November cycle.
The education part of enforcement under this
act is taking place.
Roger Coey

Will anyone from CCC reply to this posting?

Paul harvey
Hinton Avenue
Cambridge

Cambridge Matters has been published for four years at a loss of £25,000 per year, including overheads, the audio version and translated versions. That’s £100,000. Could this money have been spent better or just returned to the taxpayer?

Perhaps I should ask this question of CCC’s treasury official who deposited £9,000,000 in an Icelandic bank.

Paul Harvey
Hinton Avenue
Cambridge

Cambridge households produce about 1 ton of rubbish every year, of which about 42% is recycled. There are 42,500 households in Cambridge.
The new Blue bins are expected to increase recycling to 45% which means the amount going to landfill will reduce from 0.58*42500 24,650 tons to 23375 tons. Land fill tax is currently £32 per ton, a tax imposed by the EU and something local democratic procedures can do nothing about.

The saving in landfill taxes due to blue bins will be (24650-23375)*32=1275*32= £40,800 per year.

The cost of effecting this saving is £694,000 to distribute 32500 blue bins.

Basically the payback time is 694000/40800 = 17.01 years.

It will be the year 2026 before this investment pays off.

I see from 2009/2010 council tax booklet that CCC spends six times as much on communications (ads and mags0 as it does on Highways, Roads and Transport which is budgeted at £106,000 for the coming year.

Indeed four years of losses on Cambridge Matters Magazine equals this years budget for roads and transport. Can it really be that Cambridge Matters Magazine is 25% as important as Roads and Transport?

Paul Harvey
Hinton Avenue
Cambridge

Since 2001 there has been a growth in public recycling centers such as the ones at Sainsburys and Mcdonalds. How much of the increase in recycling can be attributed to these and how much is due to CCC efforts at the domestic collection level. It might be that much of the increase in recent years (since 2005) is down to these collection points and that we have suffered from reduced collections for little gain.

It might also show that private sector efforts are more cost effective than than services provided by a state monopoly.

Paul Harvey
Hinton Avenue
Cambridge

CCC seem to be celebrating the spending of money. How much did these bins cost and what impact are they expected to have on recycling?

Money matters. It’s our money and we have right to know how it’s spent.

Paul Harvey
Hinton Avenue
Cambridge

I see there is a place where one can subscribe to this site and get updates. How many people subscribe?

I couldn’t help but notice that until I started blogging on this site, the last post to this section was on 11th December, 2007 – about 16 months ago.
In that period there will have been five issues of Cambridge Matters Magazine published or some 5*42,500 = 215,500 copies produced. Why do you think so few have blogged on this site, given the volume of magazines distributed?

Paul Harvey
Hinton Avenue
Cambridge

Official guidance from the government quango, Wrap, has told town halls how to get rid of weekly collections and overcome “public resistance”.

It advised the cuts should be done after local elections to stop people voting against them, and in the autumn or winter so that residents would not immediately notice the extra smells and vermin.

This is despite the fact that the World Health Organisation has called for weekly rubbish collections to protect public health. The report is understood to have been commissioned by ministers in 2005 and completed in 2006.

Vicky

Did CCC follow the advice from WRAP to suppress opposition and complaints. It is interesting that this year the changes come after local government elections and they are introduced in the Autumn, as they were in 2005.

Paul Harvey