New proposals for waste collection

Wigan Council’s Cabinet will this week (18th August) consider proposals to modernise the borough’s refuse collection and recycling services.This is a response to the demand from Central Government that it has to make £66 million of cuts in the next four years. The following will be considered:


1 Black bins would be emptied one week, and food and garden waste the next from all properties, all year round. Householders would also enjoy greater choice in recycling services. Residents will have the option of using their black bin to recycle food waste if they so wish - see para 3

2.Following a successful trial involving 7,500 households, the council will soon roll out improvements to its paper collection service by providing all households with the option of a blue bin which will also take cardboard and drinks cartons. This will run on a four-weekly collection.

3.Under the arrangements being proposed, green bins will be collected fortnightly all year round rather than a break for winter, and take green waste and food waste. Households with green bins would be given plastic caddies and compostable caddy liners to put their food waste in before transferring it to the green bin.

4.Disposing of food waste through the black bin means it is going to costly landfill and the council will be urging residents to put all their food waste in their green bin/food caddy to save money and reduce greenhouse gases.

5 Households without green bins would be given the same kitchen caddy and liners as green bin households, plus a larger outdoor caddy to put their food waste out for collection. These properties would have their collections using the same crew and vehicles as those with green bins, with collections every other week.

6.The brown bin service would continue as present. This service already provides a greater opportunity to recycle more plastics than the majority of neighbouring authorities which only collect plastic bottles for recycling.

7. As I understand it these proposals will be reviewed after a year

I would be interested in any comments you may have about these proposals.

Paul Tushingham - CAP defector

I believe that local Councillor Paul Tushingham has defected from the Community Action Party and joined the Independent group. I am not surprised at this. Paul Tushingham is following a long line of local Councillors who were once in CAP and are now Independent, including Councillor Don Hodgkinson who has been a member of three parties in his time including the Labour Party. These Councillors also share one thing in common - they never told the electorate that they were leaving the party they stood for at their election.

The Community Action Party has now just one member left in the Council chamber and is finished as a political force. Given the pathetic campaign they ran in Ashton and the consequent drubbing they received from the local electorate Councillor Tushingham has clearly jumped ship because he knows that he has no chance of being re-elected while standing for CAP.

This is pure political opportunism and the voters of Ashton will see this as such at the next local election

Great night for Labour in Ashton

May local election result

Joel Haddley Labour 1595
Walter Carney Independent 710
Leanne Brotherton Community Action Party 626
Marie Winstanley Conservative 344.

Labour gain from Independents

I would like to thank everyone in Ashton who voted Labour and elected our new councillor Joel Haddley.

It was a good night for Labour throughout the Borough – we gained six seats and now have 58 out of 75 seats in the Council.

I would also like to thank Walter Carney the losing candidate for the honourable campaign he fought and would like to wish him well in the future.

Camapaigning against AV

Picture above shows the Labour Team campaigning against AV in Ashton town centre last Saturday. It was very noticeable that the majority of people agreed with us.

A lot of people were simply swayed by the fact that Nick Clegg supported AV,saying 'if he is for it then I am against it'.

AV - the debate continues

No doubt some readers will be voting for or against fundamentally changing our voting system on May 5th. My recent canvassing experience has come up with the following reactions on the doorstep:

1. Is there a referendum?
2. Why is there a referendum?
3. What is AV - alternative voting?
4. I will be voting at the local elections but not the referendum because I don't know what it is.

One woman asked me for my opinion and when I said I was against it she said 'that's good enough for me - I'll be voting against it'

Another man quite rightly pointed out that despite there being several choices on a ballot paper a person can still vote for one person and does not have to use the other preferences.

As I have said I am dead against AV but in the interest of fairness I attempt to explain what AV is below.


There are different versions of AV, but it boils down to redistributing votes until one candidate achieves more than 50% of all votes cast.

Under the Alternative Vote System, voters run down the list of Candidates, ranking them in their order of preference by physically writing 1, 2, 3 etc.

Once all votes have been cast and counted, if any one candidate polls over 50%, they are elected and there are no additional rounds, but if no candidate achieves the magic percentage, the candidate who polls the least votes is eliminated, and all the second and third preferences (and so on) are redistributed to the remaining candidates.

This process continues until someone achieves over 50%, even if only two candidates remain until the end. That’s how you get your winner, moreover, the successor can be said to have been voted for, in one form or another by the majority of voters in percentage terms.

Simples isn't it?

Now I have tried to go through this explanation on the doorstep but I noticed people's eyes glazing over halfway through and then the inevitable questions - why are we changing the present voting system and how much is this costing?

If you like me are against AV make sure you vote No on May 5th - don't abstain and let the Yes vote win it.

Petition handed in to Council

Following the very successful day in Ashton Town Centre where hundreds of residents supported our campaign to keep Ashton Library open we have now submitted all the petitions we have received including the on line petition started on this blog to Wigan Leisure Trust. Above is a picture of myself and Trevor Allen presenting the petitions to Councillor Brian Baldwin, Cabinet member for Leisure and Culture. Cllr Baldwin said he was struck by the strength of support to retain the library and by how much local people valued the services offered by the library.

The result of the consultation should be known at the end of June.

Save our Library campaign continues

Campaigners Joel Haddley and Trevor Allen together with local MP Yvonne Fovargue at the Gerard Centre last Saturday.



Our Save Ashton Library campaign took another step last Saturday when we held a street stall on the Gerard Centre. We were delighted with the response - nearly 500 people signed the petition. So far 70 people have signed the on line petition which can be found on http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveashtonlibrary/

We will be presenting these two and other petitions which other people have started to Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust at the end of this month.

As from February 2011 the number of questionnaires issued by and returned to Ashton library stands at 250. This is the 4th highest number in the Borough - Atherton, Standish and Shevington have submitted more questionnaires than Ashton