Last updated 13:38, Friday, 15 August 2008

RECYLING DILEMMA: Jane Micklethwaite, of Churchill Drive, has a problem in her area of Millom HOWARD SHIMMIN REF: 0445517

MILLOM residents are outraged after discovering they are to be left out of a council recycling scheme.
Ten thousand homes in Copeland are to be provided with a door-to-door card and plastic bottle collection service, costing taxpayers £110,000-a-year.
However, the plan currently excludes Millom, Bootle and the surrounding villages.
The Copeland Borough Council-led scheme is due to begin next month.
Millom resident and director of Millom and Haverigg Economic Development Group Jane Micklethwaite has slammed the plans, saying the town’s people pay the same rates as those in Whitehaven but are not in line to benefit.
She said: “Copeland is supposed to be one borough and it should be dealt with more holistically and if they are committed they should be bringing it down here.
“If they don’t have the money they should try to find the funds to bring it down here, particularly in some of the outer areas where the recycling trucks don’t come and people have to use bottle banks. People really do try to recycle. They do their best.
“If we are paying the same council tax as everyone else, we should be getting the same service. It will certainly be raised at the MHEDG
to examine the recycling in this area.”
Initial areas covered by the scheme will be Bransty, Mirehouse, Woodhouse, and Coach Road in Whitehaven, Corkickle, Greenbank, Hensingham, Mirehouse, Kells, the Highlands and the Loop Road area.
In following weeks the council says Frizington, Asby, Cleator, Arlecdon and Rowrah will also be added.
Waste service manager at Copeland Borough Council Janice Carroll said: “On this occasion we have struck lucky in finding a secondhand vehicle suitable for the task. We have been lucky enough to secure external funding to buy the truck.
“Plastic bottles are very light weight and take up a lot of room because basically you are transporting air. These vehicles don’t do a lot of miles to the gallon either. This was never going to be a self-funding exercise.”
To bring the scheme to the rest of Copeland’s 33,000 houses council estimates show the cost to each house would be £3-a-year for each collection vehicle in service.
The scheme is being funded by the Cumbria County Council-led campaign Cleaner Safer Greener and vehicle running costs will be covered by Cumbria Waste Partnership.
A spokeswomen for Copeland Borough Council said: “In bringing the service to that part of the borough we would have to buy a new vehicle. We don’t have the funds for that at the moment.
“We are always striving to improve and extend our recycling services and are always trying to raise funding to helping us do that. There are no immediate plans to extend the service to Millom.”