Letter: Litter - Our call to rethink charges

However at the same time your newspaper failed to publish a press release from the Liberal Democrats about fly tipping which is on the increase and part of the problem which adds to the litter issues throughout our district and adds costs to local authority budgets as they are often called upon to clear up the mess.

The press release alluded to a recent council meeting where Liberal Democrats wanted Harrogate Borough Council to ask North Yorkshire County Council to re-think their charges at the household waste recycling centres, there are charges if you want to dispose of household rubble such as tiles.

The Conservatives had other ideas and amended that request so it made no sense, stating that ‘chargeable items had only shown a slight increase despite overall fly tipping increasing by 38 per cent’, and then went on to criticise Liberal Democrats.

The result was that no meaningful debate could have taken place, just party politicking, so we withdrew the request.

By causing this the Conservatives have failed to do anything about trying to prevent this scourge, they did not want to open a dialogue with NYCC as a start to fighting this problem.

They have failed our residents and those people taking part in the Great British Clean who will find that they will be called on more and more to try and keep this problem at bay in their communities.

Coun Pat Marsh

Leader of the Liberal

Democrats

Harrogate Borough Council