Douglas Carswell's Blog

Weekly bin collection?

If your local council cannot even decide when and how it might empty the bins, in what sense is there local democracy?

Yet even this most basic task is governed by Whitehall guidelines, Brussels directives and quango rules. So much so that those you elect to decide these things soon end up explaining why the bins cannot be emptied each week, rather than making sure local taxpayers get what they pay for. And we wonder why voter turnout is in decline .....

The latest episode in this sorry saga of when councils might empty the rubbish underlines how overly centralised decision-making remains.  Why is it ministers in Whitehall making the decision between higher bin taxes or fortnightly collections? 

Perhaps this also illustrates that until we devolve control over the money to town halls, so much localism is lip service localism.          

Remote elites make decisions. Local people take the rap. No one accountable. No one sacked. This is how we are governed today.

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