Facebook to waste CDC

9:07am Saturday 28th June 2008

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By Alex Love »

TO PROTEST against Cotswold District Council's new waste scheme a fuming resident has set up a group on the website Facebook.

Mark Bainbridge, from Kemble, was dismayed to see that rubbish left out last week had not been collected with yellow stickers on the of bags saying that they had been put out on the wrong day.

"The rubbish collection service is a disgrace and our village is littered with uncollected bin bags reminisent of the dustman strike of the 1980s," he said. "It's time to take some positive action on this stealth tax and garbage from CDC."

"I am incensed by the garbage that is our rubbish collection in Kemble since the new system was brought in."

He said that as the bags had not been collected cats and foxes ripped them open and the contents had been scattered across the road and pavement.

"It's laughable," he commented. "So far it's creating more mess than it's taking away.

"I think their new policy is not about recycling but is about halving the overhead by reducing the service to fortnightly collections.

"I have set up a Facebook group to harness the power of social networking."

Mr Bainbridge said he hopes the group, called Cotswold District Council Rubbish Rage', will allow people from the Cotswolds to come together online to express their views about the waste situation.

He said he also hopes a high enough number of people will join the group so that CDC will take notice.

Mike Harris, CDC waste communications officer, said: "It will take a few weeks for everyone to adjust to the new service and for SITA to establish exactly what resources in terms of staff and vehicles are required in the long term."

Facebook is a social networking website that launched in 2004, with 80million users worldwide.

Several groups on the site have had a big impact. For example, last year HSBC was forced to do a U-turn on overdraft charges on graduate accounts after a high number of people joined the group.