TORY MAYOR CLIMBS DOWN OVER NEW BROWN BIN TAX

FOR RELEASE FROM 12:01am 15 JANUARY

TORY MAYOR CLIMBS DOWN OVER NEW BROWN BIN TAX

Last night in North Tyneside, the Council’sTory cabinet performed a dramatic u-turn over plans to introduce a brown bin tax to pay for the collection of garden waste from homes across the borough.

Last autumn, North Tyneside residents received letters from the Council demanding £20 for every garden refuse bin for households to continue having their garden waste collected from March 2013. The scheme has already cost the Council over £25,000 in set-up costs and will now cost £47,000 to administer refunds to residents who have already paid the charge.

Councillor Norma Redfearn, Deputy Leader of the Labour Group and Labour’s candidate for elected Mayor in 2013, led a campaign against the new charge which culminated in a debate over a Labour motion to Council in the autumn. North Tyneside Labour Group asked Tory Mayor Linda Arkley to go away and think again about introducing the new charge. Norma Redfearn had pledged to scrap the charge if she was successful in the mayoral election in May.

Last night, Councillor Redfearn said, “Perhaps the Tory Mayor is, rather belatedly, trying to do something about her growing Council debt mountain but a stealth tax on garden rubbish was never a good way to do that. The main thing, however, is that, at last, sense has prevailed over this issue which should not have been mooted in the first place. No doubt residents will draw their own conclusions about what this has cost the Council and the inconvenience it has caused.”

ENDS

NOTES FOR EDITORS ON NEXT PAGE North Tyneside Labour Group

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NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. The costs quoted in this release are taken from the Cabinet meeting papers available on the North Tyneside Council website (see link).

http://www.northtyneside.gov.uk/browse-display.shtml?p_ID=541245&p_subjectCategory=41

2. The covering email for this release also attaches a photograph. The residents pictured in the photograph with Norma are Mr and Mrs Thompson of Cliftonville Gardens, Whitley Bay. They registered their objection to the introduction of the brown bin tax with their local Labour councillor and Norma Redfearn and have signed an appropriate release form for use of this photograph.

3. Whilst North Tyneside Council has a Tory Mayor elected in 2009, the political composition of the Council is now: Labour 43; Conservative 12; LibDem 5. (In 2009 it was: Labour 21; Conservative 31; LibDem 8.)

4. Councillor Norma Redfearn is the Labour Party candidate for Mayor of North Tyneside in the 2013 election. You can follow Norma’s campaign on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/normaformayor .

CONTACT FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

For further information on this press release please contact:

Councillor Norma Redfearn

Mobile Telephone: 07759 699 707

eMail: norma4mayor@gmail.com

or

Tony Stephenson

North Tyneside Labour Group Media Unit

Mobile telephone: 07759 660 121

eMail: Labour.NTyneside@yahoo.com

Promoted by North Tyneside Labour, all at 7 Palmersville, Newcastle NE12 9HN