Agenda item

That this Council:-

(a)       recalls the decision of the incoming Administration in May 2012 to reduce the budget for Household Waste Recycling Centres by a further £204,000;

(b)       understands that Blackstock Road has the highest tonnage of any recycling centre, and is therefore dismayed at the Administration’s decision to close Blackstock Road three days a week, while another centre remains open seven days a week;

(c)        notes reports of queues of more than 100 cars, which have formed outside Blackstock Road Recycling Centre, causing serious concerns for road safety;

(d)       furthermore, believes the introduction of fortnightly black bin collections, the ceasing of other recycling services, and the failure to avoid repeated strikes, has only served to exacerbate the situation;

(e)       regrets the Administration’s treatment of residents in the south and south-west of the City who use the Blackstock Road Recycling Centre, and believes the Administration has made insufficient effort to mitigate the effects of this unfair decision; and

(f)         challenges the Administration to reconsider the unfair reduction in hours at Blackstock Road and provide the service that local people deserve.

It was moved by Councillor Ian Auckland, seconded by Councillor Simon Clement-Jones, that this Council:-

(a)       recalls the decision of the incoming Administration in May 2012 to reduce the budget for Household Waste Recycling Centres by a further £204,000;

(b)       understands that Blackstock Road has the highest tonnage of any recycling centre, and is therefore dismayed at the Administration’s decision to close Blackstock Road three days a week, while another centre remains open seven days a week;

(c)        notes reports of queues of more than 100 cars, which have formed outside Blackstock Road Recycling Centre, causing serious concerns for road safety;

(d)       furthermore, believes the introduction of fortnightly black bin collections, the ceasing of other recycling services, and the failure to avoid repeated strikes, has only served to exacerbate the situation;

(e)       regrets the Administration’s treatment of residents in the south and south-west of the City who use the Blackstock Road Recycling Centre, and believes the Administration has made insufficient effort to mitigate the effects of this unfair decision; and

(f)         challenges the Administration to reconsider the unfair reduction in hours at Blackstock Road and provide the service that local people deserve.

Whereupon, it was moved by Councillor Jack Scott, seconded by Councillor Bryan Lodge, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the deletion of all the words after the words  ‘That this Council’ and the substitution of the following words therefor:-

(a)       regrets that the Council has had to reduce spending by £55 million in the 2012/13 budget and that by 2015/16 the Council will have £170m less to spend than it did in 2011/12 and regrets that the main opposition group continue to fully support the level of cuts imposed on the Council by the Conservative-led Government;

(b)       further regrets that to meet this unprecedented financial gap in the budget, the Council has had to reduce the opening hours of the five Household Waste Recycling Centres, however acknowledges that the previous Administration made the majority of the cuts to these Centres in the 2011/12 budget;

(c)        notes that the Council makes every effort to provide the best possible waste service, including sufficient opening hours at the Household Waste Recycling Centres to offer a sustainable service, working within the severe financial constraints imposed by the Government; 

(d)       recognises that the present Administration have made several improvements to original proposals to manage the reductions in opening hours and under the revised opening hours, Sheffield's five Household Waste Recycling Centres will be open a total of 29 days every week, with all sites open on the peak days of Friday to Monday, sites open every day of the week and summer opening times until 6pm which better suits the needs of users;

(e)       notes that in their 2012/13 budget amendments, neither opposition group proposed to reverse any savings to Household Waste Recycling Centres which would be required to re-consider reductions in opening hours and believes that the late involvement of the main opposition group after the revised opening hours have already been implemented is nothing more than blatant political opportunism;

(f)         deplores the outrageously misleading and factually inaccurate accusations made in the press by the Leader of the main opposition group that the distribution of reductions in opening hours across Household Waste Recycling Centres have been politically motivated;

(g)       confirms for the record that there is absolutely no truth in the claims that the distribution of reductions in opening hours across Household Waste Recycling Centres have been politically motivated and notes the following statement by the Director of Finance and Corporate Services at SOVA - "SOVA Recycling Ltd were asked, as were all those organisations who submitted a tender to run the sites in 2011, how they proposed to allow commercial waste to be accepted at the sites. Due to the licenses under which the sites operate, household waste and commercial waste must be kept separate. This meant that a site had to be chosen which would need be closed to the public during the periods it would be accepting commercial waste. SOVA specifically chose Blackstock for this purpose, with the decision being based on its more central location, with Douglas Road being deemed unsuitable due to its layout and the fact the buildings on the site were needed to process recycling materials.";

(h)        further confirms that the only favoured area of the present Administration is the whole of Sheffield;

(i)         calls upon the Leader of the main opposition group to apologise to the people of Sheffield for what this Council regards as an attempt to mislead them by claming that the distribution of reductions in opening hours were politically motivated;

(j)         further remembers that the Leader of the main opposition group was previously the Cabinet Member who oversaw the most shambolic mismanagement of the waste service the City has known through the introduction of blue boxes to recycle paper which angered many local people and welcomes that the present Administration are now resolving this issue across the City;

(k)        reiterates its regret for all cuts to waste services, however, recognises that they are ultimately a consequence of the Liberal Democrat Party’s, led by the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam, decision to support a Conservative-led Government which is heavily cutting Sheffield’s budget at the same time as some of the wealthiest Councils in the Conservative heartlands receive almost no cuts at all and regrets that the Liberal Democrat Party both locally and nationally continue to refuse to stand up for Sheffield; and

(l)         regrets that when Sheffield is facing one of the most challenging periods in its history, the main opposition group continue to resort to making petty and factually inaccurate accusations in an attempt to deflect the responsibility from the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam and the Liberal Democrats who are part of a Government that is imposing unprecedented cuts to the Council’s services, which is inevitably impacting on the services that are provided for Sheffield people.

On being put to the vote, the amendment was carried.

(Note: Councillors Jillian Creasy and Robert Murphy voted for Paragraphs (a) and (d) and abstained on Paragraphs (b), (c) and (e) to (l) of the amendment and asked for this to be recorded.)

The original Motion, as amended, was then put as a Substantive Motion in the following form and carried, as follows:-

(Note: Councillors Jillian Creasy and Robert Murphy voted for Paragraphs (a) and (d) and abstained on Paragraphs (b) (c) and (e) to (l) of the Motion and asked for this to be recorded.)