Page 119 - Archive in reverse date order

residents, including the NCRA, would be able to express their views.

Regarding the Waste4Fuel site (see 4.6), the several MPs involved in tackling this problem had
done a wonderful job in getting it resolved.

Turning to Garden Waste, Don explained that Bexley's Collection Service cost £7.2m a year, and
it had attained a high recycling record; but collecting garden waste was not a statutory
requirement. And so it had been decided that from October 2015 this would be a paying service
for people who wanted it. It was a very flexible scheme, one playing a part in Bexley's duty to
balance its books.

Turning then to Growth in the borough, Don reported that Bexley had a massive problem with
homeless people – and it must build more houses as it had a duty to house homeless people. A
number of areas had been designated for this, all in the north of the borough; and he added that
with growth came income! However, there were no plans for large-scale growth in North Cray
or Sidcup.

Several questions were then put to him from the floor:-

(a) a member in The Spinney asked if there had to be savings why not raise Council Tax? Don
replied that the vast majority of people had congratulated Bexley for keeping Tax low – but this
did mean difficult choices.

(b) another member expressed concern about fly-tipping if people had to pay for garden waste
collection. Don replied that he had spoken to many other local authorities who had introduced a
paying scheme, who had assured him that this had resulted in no increase in fly-tipping. He
added that some communities were coming together to set up volunteers to collect rubbish.

(c) a member in the North Cray Road asked whether anyone was employed to collect litter. Don
replied yes, under contract. This was done less frequently than before, but all roads were swept
every three weeks.

(d) a member in Ruxley Close pointed out that there were few litter bins in the North Cray Road,
and none at bus stops. Don mentioned that the North Cray Community Centre set up Outreach
activities, and they might be able to help with rubbish collection in this area.

(e) Trevor Jones of Barton Road said that whenever its bins were emptied, the men left them all
over the road! Don advised the residents to always report this to the Contact Centre, with the
date and time. David added that the NCRA would put a note about this in its next Newsletter.

7.2 James Brokenshire, MP: James began by thanking the NCRA for inviting him here this
evening, and thanking those who had re-elected him in May (the meeting responded with
spontaneous applause!). He asked everyone to be assured that he was the MP for everyone in his
constituency, whether they had supported him or not. James then congratulated the NCRA for its
input – which he said was a great credit to it. There were not so many residents associations these
days, but there was clearly a strong community spirit in North Cray!

Turning to the Waste4Fuel site, he regarded this as having operated as a “legalised fly-tipping
site”, one where the operator had then run off leaving a heap of rubbish behind. James said that
some of this waste mountain had already now been removed, to make the site safer before the
rest could be cleared away. In all these efforts, other local MPs, Bob Neil and Jo Johnson, had

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