• THE number one issue that we hear raised on the doorstep, when we are out talking to residents, or at our regular surgeries, is Camden’s bins policy.

People keep saying to us – why won’t the Labour-run council admit that they got this one wrong and reverse the policy cuts to rubbish collections? Can’t they see that the changes have led to a huge increase in fly-tipping and litter?

We don’t know why the Labour Party won’t listen. But we do know now that Labour candidates in Frognal and Fitzjohns are misleadingly telling residents on their leaflets that they are “advocating for changes to refuse policy”.

What changes do Labour support? If there’s a new policy, where are the details? And frankly why would anyone believe such a commitment?

Labour promised in their manifesto before the last council elections to maintain weekly collections. Once the election was done, they broke this promise and scrapped them for many parts of the borough.

We have also heard from residents that they were told by Labour activists that their concerns about the new system would be passed on and fed into a review into bin collections that is now running. If Camden Council is holding such a review, why are they not being open and transparent about it?

It’s not right that elected councillors, let alone local residents, have not had the chance to feed in their views about the chaos which has resulted from the cuts to rubbish collections.

Camden Conservatives have forced the council to release new figures. These show a seven-fold increase in reported littering since the cuts to bin collections and a near doubling of fly-tipping, since Labour’s changes. Rather than apologising for the mess they have made of our streets, they’ve tried to dismiss their own data.

Residents know that it’s only the Conservatives who have fought consistently against the cuts to bin collections from when they were first proposed by Labour and supported by the Lib Dems.

If we are elected on May 3, we will fight to bring back weekly collections and to clean up our streets and local environment.

HENRY NEWMAN
ANDREW PARKINSON
GIO SPINELLA
(Frognal and Fitzjohns Conservatives)