Plan for rubbish czar scrapped by leader

Dudley Council has scrapped plans for a tip czar to find a permanent home for a household waste recycling centre (HWRC).

A meeting of the authority’s cabinet on October 9 was asked to vote on a recommendation in a report to appoint a waste management consultancy to carry out a feasibility study on providing a new site in the north of the borough.

Before the debate began, Cllr Patrick Harley, leader of Dudley Council, poured scorn on the idea and called for the recommendation to be junked.

He also called for new negotiations with Labour-run City of Wolverhampton Council to restart a previous deal which allowed access to their tip at Anchor Lane for Dudley residents.

Cllr Harley said: “I do not think we need to spend money on an expert coming in to tell us where we should put the tip or what the process is.

“There is enough expertise in this council, there are enough councillors in this room that can decide where they would like another tip if that would be the way forward.

“The sensible thing is to try and get back round the table with Wolverhampton again.”

The czar idea was binned and the debate took a political turn when Labour turned the clock back to previous failed talks on a deal.

Labour’s Dudley leader, Cllr Shaukat Ali, said: “Wolverhampton weren’t happy with the way the negotiations went. I think 40 per cent of the residents from our area were utilizing the facility in Anchor Lane and what they were looking for is for Dudley to pay our fair share.”

Conservative Cllr Harley said: “A deal was there between officers that was agreed, it’s gone to the politicians in Wolverhampton, for whatever reason it was rejected.

“That could have been because of pressure from forthcoming local elections in Wolverhampton, who knows? Only they can answer that.”

Dudley Liberal Democrat leader, Cllr Ryan Priest, said: “It’s become a political football, I’ve never understood why it’s been allowed to get to this point.

“Even if we get some great deal that gets Anchor Lane back, our fortunes still rest on a council that’s shown they will withhold that and at the end of the contract we could be back here again.

“Surely the best thing would be a site based in the borough that is run by Dudley.”

Cabinet member for neighbourhood, Cllr Damian Corfield, said: “The time frame to deliver a brand new HWRC; you are looking at around five years.

“Anchor Lane has been brought up a lot because that’s what residents have asked for.”

Dudley Reform UK’s leader, Cllr Marco Longhi, told the meeting residents in the north of the borough will be frustrated because they are paying the same council tax as people in Stourbridge, the home of the borough’s only HWRC.

Cllr Longhi added: “All we’ve had is a few pop ups (tips), it is a sticking plaster, it’s not the proper job.

“We were reliant on Wolverhampton but we need to have our own.

“I think everybody knows how complicated it is, if you had taken the people of Sedgley seriously five years ago we’d now have one.”

By Martyn Smith | Local Democracy Reporting Service