HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

Oxford Indymedia

Lincoln bin revolt

Keith Parkins | 08.05.2007 15:27 | Health | Repression | Social Struggles | Oxford

Lincoln was a rock solid Labour stronghold. The Tories captured Lincoln when they promised a return to weekly refuse collection.

For as long as I can remember, Lincoln has been Labour. At one time there was one Conservative councillor.

Lincoln went to fortnightly bin collection.

In the local elections last week, the Conservatives took Lincoln. They did so by promising a return to weekly bin collection.

The other important issue was high rise buildings. In recent years, the city's historic skyline has been destroyed by some horrendous, extremely ugly high rise buildings. The good folk of Lincoln saw a Council in bed with big developers. There were rumours circulating of corrupt councillors and backhanders. True?

The leader of Lincolnshire County Councillor recently served a prison sentence for corruption.

It all sounds all too familiar to the residents of Farnborough. A rotten borough out of touch with reality, let alone the local community. A rotten borough where the leader of the council and the chief executive have regular secret meeting with a developer that has destroyed Farnborough town centre, where the deputy leader, a candidate in last week's local election, had on the front page of his Out of Touch election comic, computer generated graphics supplied by the developer.

In the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor, voting patterns are tribal. In the Tory areas they vote Tory, Labour areas Labour and in the Lib Dem areas Lib Dem.

You could stick a blue rosette on a donkey in the Tory ward of Knellwood and it would be elected, the only difference is a donkey would be of more use than the three useless councillors.

How else can one explain the reelection of the Deputy Leader of Rushmoor, the man responsible for putting several thousand households on fortnightly bin collection? A councillor who has nothing but arrogant contempt for the local electorate.

During the elections, he claimed only one person had objected to fortnightly bin collection, it was not a big issue, and the few who raised it with him, were happy with fortnightly.

The truth was people were greatly agitated by the issue, and were not just opposed, but were very, very angry. On the streets, it was extremely difficult to find anyone in favour.

A request to the council on the number of complaints re refuse collection, brought forth the the answer the day after Polling Day, that over 100 people had objected. All those who complained, received a visit from the Council to persuade them to change their mind!

But if the electorate insist on electing worthless councillors, they have only themselves to blame for the unpleasant outcomes.

One of the big differences between Lincoln and the Rotten Borough of Rushmoor, is a quality local press that is prepared to expose what is going on, unlike Aldershot and Farnborough, where the local press is not only compliant with the local council and big business, but gives the strong impression of being their unofficial PR agency.

Last year Bolton was controlled by the Lib Dems, who introduced fortnightly bin collection. The local elections saw the Lib Dems wiped out leaving them with only one seat on the council.

The historic city of Lincoln has decided not to return to the Middle Ages. What of the historic city of Oxford, with its fortnightly bin collections and rubbish strewn streets, is the arrogant Jean Fooks, the councillor responsible for dragging Oxford back to the Middle Ages in terms of squalor and filth, still of the view that the lady is not for turning?

Websites

 http://www.thetruthinrushmoor.co.uk/
 http://www.crow.uk.com/
 http://www.weeklywaste.com/
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/bins
 http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/AxetheBinTax/
 http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/WeeklyRubbish/
 http://www.recyclenow.com/
 http://www.letsrecycle.com/info/localauth/league/2005ranked.jsp

References

Beth Hale, Black Death bacteria found in bins left uncollected for fortnight, The Mail on Sunday, 6 May 2007
 http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=453100&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true#StartComments

'I blame Blair for Tory win', Lincolnshire Echo, 7 May 2007
 http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=156153&command=displayContent&sourceNode=156136&contentPK=17243865&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

Keith Parkins, Local elections bin backlash, Indymedia UK, 24 April 2007
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/04/368649.html

Keith Parkins, Bin revolution gathers pace, Indymedia UK, 30 April 2007
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/04/369120.html

Red flag falls after 26 years, Lincolnshire Echo, 4 May 2007
 http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=156153&command=displayContent&sourceNode=156136&contentPK=17233393&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

Keith Parkins
- Homepage: http://www.heureka.clara.net/lincolnshire/

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. Sounds like.... — Observer
Publish your news
-->

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Oxford Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech