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Will Westbury be waste capital of Wiltshire?
Mike Hawkins:
http://www.whitehorsenews.co.uk/blog/?p=1627
I hope not! However, from my experience do not be surprised. Wiltshire Council have consistently failed to deliver for Westbury!!
If they make any promises, do not trust them! When it was agreed that the MBT plant would be located here, we were promised that Westbury would have its own Household Recycling Centre at this location at the same time. I was Mayor at this time and was present when this promise was made! It was also one of the conditions of the planning consent (now conveniently set aside)!
Since then, they have back pedalled and said we cannot have one. Our Wiltshire Councillors have totally failed to ensure this promise was kept, instead relying upon Wiltshire Councils decision that the whole subject of Household Recycling Centres was being reviewed!!!
Our Wiltshire Councillors will defend themselves on this (as usual), but will they convince the electorate? Not this one!!
charlie finbow:
I agree Mike. I remember being present when this came up and the over riding point was "No Household Recycling Centre then No MBT". This was agreed but as you say has now been reneged on, nothing new there then. When Westbury and the surrounding areas had Community Skips once a month, it was a valuable asset for the comunity and demonstrated the need for a Household Recycling Centre in Westbury. Lets face it Frome, Trowbridge and Warminster all have one, we don't, even though we were promised one. I doubt our Unitary Councilors have any control over this even it they do voice their concerns. Once again Westbury is the poor cousin of Wiltshire.
Mike Hawkins:
I agree Charlie, but our Unitiary Councillors do not appear to have expressed their concerns!!
If you kick a dog, some will bite back. Some will merely roll on their backs exposing their bellies in submission. In which category do our UC's fit?
Al:
If I may play devils advocate for a bit...
So there are proposals to bring jobs to the town, but the NIMBYs don't like the idea of other peoples rubbish, yet alone their own? There are waste transfer stations in various places across Wiltshire already. A recycling center that sorts and sends on recyclables sounds like something we should all be in favour of and doing more to do more of. Sure, there are valid concerns about the roads, but I have not seen any data on what volume of what type of lorries will be visiting the places so I can't see how anyone can yet make a substantive complaint (should we demand teh dairy closes, 'cos have you seen how many tankers visit that place!?!?). Heck, lets get the jobs and people into Westbury and then sort the smaller issues out, otherwise nothing will ever happen and the whole town will stagnate into the nothingness gheto it seems to be becoming.
baldy:
--- Quote from: Mike Hawkins on February 03, 2012, 20:32:32 PM ---I agree Charlie, but our Unitiary Councillors do not appear to have expressed their concerns!!
If you kick a dog, some will bite back. Some will merely roll on their backs exposing their bellies in submission. In which category do our UC's fit?
--- End quote ---
Mike
You are falling into your usual soapbox habit of criticising people when you don't have all the relevant information of what has happened leading up to the present position and when a newspaper article only prints snippets of what someone has actually said.
Westbury's Wiltshire Councillors have all been involved in voicing concerns about the idea of allocating several waste sites in the Westbury Community Area at all stages in the process - whether via the town council or the area board (which are the most relevant places to say one's views and influence what happens).
When the final report is written by senior officers and goes to cabinet, it is already far too late to then start saying anything new. Indeed, I don't think there is anything new to say. It's all been said.
The fact that Westbury is identified as having 3 suitable sites for waste processes is simply a reflection of two facts:
a) We have good road links to the rest of Wiltshire;
b) We have three large sites that physically could cope with the developments envisaged.
There is nothing in the report saying that all 3 of Westbury's sites should be used or that all 3 should be used in priority over the other sites in the county.
The report just identifies suitable sites.
The planning stage is when more objections can be made based on facts about any specific proposals at the time.
The likes of me going to a cabinet meeting (as you know, I am not a cabinet member) to tell everyone what they already know would be a pure waste of everyone's time.
There is no point in treating cabinet members as stupid or ignorant. They are bright and clever people and have a difficult job to do balancing the duties of the council with budget cuts and NIMBYs everywhere.
The senior officers are writing the reports based on facts.
There are no facts to try to correct.
Going along to a cabinet meeting to say the blatently obvious - that people in Westbury don't want too many waste sites nearby - will achieve nothing at all. Not even a quote in the press ...... unless I say something really outrageous that just makes me look demented and focussed on making Westbury folk look like NIMBYs ... when actually some of these proposals will create jobs and none of the sites are actually in the town. They are all in proper established industrial areas.
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