The minister has a task on his hands
FACING questions in the States today and with widespread concerns about the cost and impact of kerbside waste collections, the Public Services Department minister is under some pressure.
FACING questions in the States today and with widespread concerns about the cost and impact of kerbside waste collections, the Public Services Department minister is under some pressure.
It is one reason why he requested space in the Guernsey Press – which we are happy to provide in today's letters' page – to try to address those anxieties and explain that collections are just one part of a much wider whole.
In that, his letter is successful.
It gives islanders a better overview of what PSD is setting out to achieve and also explains that, ultimately, the stakes are high. As the minister reminds us, the States has already – largely on the back of public opinion – wasted £12m.-worth of taxpayer money abandoning two earlier strategies.
The message is clear: it is not in anyone's best interest to jeopardise this latest initiative.
Yet there remains a lot of unease about it and, despite the minister's best efforts, those concerns will remain.
Like it or not, people have reservations about centralised collections and, particularly, putting it in the hands of States Works. Allegations of corruption at Mont Cuet and on the St Peter Port round have not helped but, right or wrong, many fear that SWD will provide a jobsworth service not a patch on that offered by the private binmen.
This is, in part, an age thing. The predominantly young, frequently migrant, multi-occupancy properties serviced care not who picks up the rubbish as long as it goes. But then they put everything out, even readily recycled material, and enforced segregation will come as a shock to many.
Supporters of the private contractors are mainly more mature islanders who appreciate bespoke service and worry about cost. They also have a strong sense of fair play and the prospect of the States driving the independents out of business sits badly with them.
Hence the reaction by some of the parishes.
The PSD minister says the changes, far from a threat, could actually be an opportunity for the binmen. In addition, the results of the SWD kerbside trial can be passed on to the binmen to help them tender for the island-wide contract.
The task the minister now has, however, is persuading middle Guernsey that what he says here will actually give them what they want.
