Saturday 18th February 2006

Plan to charge for
emptying bins
dropped by council
by David Skentelbery

A CONTROVERSIAL proposal to introduce charges for emptying wheelie bins from farms and other hard-to-reach properties in the Warrington area has been dropped.
The plan had been under consideration as part of the borough council?s annual budget, to be considered by members of the executive board tonight (Friday).
Farmers were threatening court action if the council pressed ahead with the plan.
But today council chief executive David Whitehead said the proposal had been withdrawn from the budget.
The scheme had infuriated people in outlying areas of the borough.
Before the announcement that the proposal had been withdrawn, farmer Roger Trickett, of Twiss Green Lane, Culcheth, said: “This has caused a great deal of anger in the farming community.
“We are not talking about trade waste, or agricultural waste. This is ordinary household waste of the type produced by every home in the borough – the stuff that goes in the grey wheelie bin.
“Apparently the idea is to charge farmers and people living in isolated dwellings or in houses on unadopted roads.
“But we pay our council tax like anyone else. In many ways, we receive a lesser service than other people. For instance many of us don’t benefit from street lighting.
“Yet we are apparently going to be asked to pay for having our rubbish collected twice – once in the council tax and once through a special charge.
“Farmers all over the borough are very angry. We don’t want to go down this route, but if necessary we will seek a Judicial Review to stop the council taking this action.”
Mr Trickett said some years ago the council tried to force farmers to take their wheelie bins to the end of their farm tracks on the grounds that some were unsuitable for refuse collection wagons.
“But they had to drop that idea when we pointed out that if we were getting tankers and delivery wagons up our tracks there was no reason why a bin wagon couldn’t do the same.
“We now have a special weekly delivery, known as the Farmer’s Round, which involves a smaller refuse wagon visiting farms all over the borough. This is fine – but we should not have to pay extra for it.”
According to the council, the cost of collecting refuse from hard-to-reach properties, such as farms, is four times higher than from a normal house.

Trust improves life
for its workers
by staff reporter

WARRINGTON Primary Care Trust has achieved national recognition for improving the working lives of its staff.
The Improving Working Lives “Practice Plus” accreditation demonstrates the PCT has introduced a range of positive initiatives in partnership with staff. Areas include healthy working, training and development, communication, and equality and diversity.
Improving Working Lives is a national initiative which encourages all NHS organisations to develop good practice in order to improve morale and boost staff retention.
Independent assessors gave the PCT 192 points out of a possible 204. Singled out for praise were the PCT’s flexible working arrangements, its occupational health service, its use of national vocational qualifications (NVQs), and its links with community groups which “help create a diverse and inclusive workforce”.
PCT chief executive Allison Cooke said: “I am very proud of this achievement. Our staff work extremely hard to provide a first class health service for the people of Warrington. It is important that they are able to directly benefit from some of the initiatives introduced in the last couple of years. We now plan to build on this progress to ensure all staff have good working lives within the NHS.”
At the same time the PCT has maintained its recognition under the Investors in People standard. This is a quality standard which focuses on the continuous improvement of both the PCT and its staff.

71.44 per cent poll in
youth Parliament election
by John Hendon

YOUNG people across Warrington have voted in the town?s members of the UK Youth Parliament – and produced voting figures that put the “real” Parliamentary elections to shame.
Jessica Latimer, a pupil at William Beamont High, was elected MYP for Warrington North and Katie Jervis, from Penketh High School, was elected MYP for Warrington South.
In Warrington North, 964 young people voted ? a 71.44 per cent poll ? while in Warrington South, 1,194 youngsters voted ? a 62.61 per cent poll.
It is the biggest UKYP election held in Warrington in the five years it has been running.
Forty young people originally put themselves forward for selection as candidates.
Deputy MYPs elected for Warrington North Charlotte Fong (Padgate High School) and Andrew Martin (Culcheth High School). Deputy MYPs for Warrington South were Sean McGuiness (Barrowhall College) and Calum Moore (Lymm High School).
Adam Morgan from Warrington Youth Service said: ?It has been extremely encouraging to see that more than 2000 young people have taken the time to cast their votes in the UKYP Elections. I’d like to congratulate all of the people who stood for election they all did I great job in representing there views and we hope to see everybody continuing to campaign on behalf of young people through the formation of Warrington Youth Forum.?

Garden waste collection
scheme ready to start
by staff reporter

THOUSANDS of tonnes of garden waste will be collected and recycled across Warrington this spring as part of a new, free service.
Residents are being encouraged to do their bit and recycle more as the Borough council launches its new kerbside garden waste recycling service, which is being introduced over the next few months, and will initially involve about 56,000 properties.
Householders will receive a 240-litre green wheelie bin for all their garden waste, which will be collected fortnightly as part of the free service to help Warrington increase its recycling rates.
The scheme will be rolled out across the borough in four phases, commencing with a leaflet drop, followed by bin delivery then collections.
Leaflets introducing the service will be delivered over an eight week period starting on Monday (February 20).
In March, green bins will be delivered to households together with further information containing important information such as collection dates.
During April and May Collections will start.
Deliveries will be phased across the borough with those in the North East of the borough first, followed by the North West, the South and finally the Central area.
Householders should note that after they receive their leaflet, they will receive their green bin and calendar about two weeks later. The start of collections will vary depending on the area of the borough so it is important to check start dates. In some cases this may be up to six weeks after the bin has been delivered.
Different types of garden waste can be put in the green bin including prunings, grass cuttings, old plants flowers, leaves, hedge and shrub trimmings, etc.
The service will be suspended for two months during the winter when there is not much garden waste to collect.
Coun Jeff Richards, the council?s executive member for Sustainable Environment, said: “This new scheme is being introduced to help us continue to increase the amount we recycle in Warrington. It will take a few weeks for it to be rolled out across the borough as this is a large scale project but I would encourage everyone to participate especially as the summer is coming and we all have extra garden waste during this time.
“The aim of this scheme is to increase our recycling rate by 7 per cent, which would take the town’s overall rate to nearly 30 per cent. It will prevent around 8,000 tonnes of garden waste being sent needlessly to landfill – instead it will be composted and turned into soil improver.”

Motor cyclist diesin road crash
by David Skentelbery