This time he’s really talking rubbish! – Owl

Text of recent Facebook page from Paul Hayward, Independent Cllr, Deputy Leader EDDC. 

“You may have seen a recent post promoting the campaign of a certain local MP by a colleague in the same party which criticised the district council for low flytipping enforcement numbers.

The photos below (screenshots from relevant articles) go some way to explain why the statistics published by the MP (and shared without question) should be taken with a pinch of salt and read in the context of a forthcoming general election.

But, the facts are simple. Devon County Council refuses to permit trade waste disposal and recycling at its waste centres in East Devon. It levies some of the highest charges for household waste disposal of common household items. This is what causes fly-tipping. Devon County Council POLICY.

Not the authority that has to pick up the waste from laybys and streets, but gets virtually no money from DCC to do so. Not the farmers and landowners who have to pay to have flytipped material cleared from their private land.

It can be done differently but Councillors at DCC just stick their fingers in their ears and use the subject for electioneering- one might argue that they should have done something while they could instead of bleating about it now.

It can be done differently. Take Slough Borough Council. A builder can take their trade waste from a clients house to the tip. Their van is weighed in and weighed out. They pay a flat rate per tonne on the difference. They get a receipt and can give that to their client to get reimbursed. But, they don’t just dump it. No, they have to separate and recycle like everyone else. So, not only does Slough get paid for trade waste, they sell the tipped material for profit AND their fly-tipped rate is very low. Which means they save money too on the collection and disposal of fly-tipped waste. It’s a win-win-win. Because they provide the amenity for genuine builders, chippies, tilers, sparkys, plumbers, plasterers to use.

But Devon refuse to listen. Refuse to act. Refuse to help.

And so people take the law into their own hands under cover of darkness. We all pay the price of this rural blight and nuisance because the County Council is too insular, wooden and set in its ways to try a different approach. They’ve been asked multiple times, but they do NOTHING.

But, funnily enough, you don’t see the hopeful Tory candidate having a pop at the Tory run County Council. Strange huh?

It’s almost like they know that the problem is close to home, but they dare not rock the boat. The final photo also reveals that Government cuts (yes, a Tory government) are at the core of why local authorities down the line are struggling to cope).

Still, the facts speak for themselves.”