Councillors call for extraordinary meeting

An extraordinary meeting of Powys County Council has been called for by Independent councillors to discuss scrapping the controversial recycling centre booking system.

The booking system is set to go live next Tuesday, March 25 with the introduction of waste charges at Powys’ recycling centres coming into force from  April 1.

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While the decision to bring this in was agreed at the budget setting meeting in February 2024 – concerns about its implications on residents have only been raised during the last couple of months.

In January it was revealed that Northern Ireland based Bryson Recycling had been awarded the contract to run all recycling centres in Powys except Welshpool’s, which will continue to be run by Potter’s recycling.

Budget papers from last year show the move would save or generate £400,000 for the council over a two year period.

The move has been heavily criticised by councillors with many residents taking to social media to vent their fury over the proposals.

Powys Independents and the council’s anti-poverty champion Cllr Joy Jones (Newtown East) set up and online petition – Abolish Powys Tip Booking System and Additional Charges – which to date has been signed by 4,482 people.

The move for the “extraordinary general meeting follows the Powys Independent and Conservative groups follows requests for the issue to be debated at a full council meeting earlier this month, being denied.

This is because their “urgent” motions had been judged to have not been submitted to the council in the appropriate time scale – which is three weeks ahead of the meeting.

If  the meeting is permitted the new motion will be proposed by Powys Independent Cllr Gareth E. Jones (Llanelwedd) and seconded by Cllr Joy Jones.

The motion has also been signed by three other members of the group, joint leader Cllr Ange Williams (Knighton with Beguildy), and Cllrs Graham Breeze (Welshpool Llanerchydol) and Cllr Gareth D. Jones (Llanfair Caereinion and Llanerfyl).

Joint group leaders Cllr Beverley Baynham (Presteigne) and Cllr Ange Williams said: “We are disappointed that we were not allowed the opportunity to raise this issue at the March meeting of the council and that is why we have taken this very serious action.

“We are not being listened to and not being allowed to present the views of our residents.

“We are also extremely unhappy that Cllr James Gibson-Watt, leader of the Lib-Dem/Labour Cabinet, has chosen to say the silent majority is in favour of the plans to introduce the booking system and waste charges and that he thinks we are overreacting.”

“Perhaps our leader is not connecting with his residents.

“Our intention is to present an on-line petition launched by Cllr Joy Jones opposing the plans signed by around 4,500 people, and also to present evidence that similar schemes are failing for councils across the country.”

They believe that this gives the council the chance to put the scheme “on hold” for more research to be carried out.

It would avoid the “embarrassing situation” of having to conduct a U-turn and “withdraw” the booking and charging systems at a later date.

The council chairman, Conservative Cllr Jonathan Wilkinson is expected to decide the request within seven working days and the ultimate decision on whether the meeting can take place would lie with chief executive, Emma Palmer.

The council has been asked to comment.