Tory bin claims are rubbish, says council leader

Milton Keynes Council's Labour leader Pete Marland says Conservative bin claims are "untrue desperate lies"

A Labour council leader has called on the Conservative opposition to stop sending out leaflets claiming his party wants to cut weekly black bin collections if it wins the local election on 2 May.

Leaflets handed out in Milton Keynes' Broughton ward claim Tory candidate Rishi Sharda will "save weekly bin collections".

The Tories say the proposals were discussed at a city council scrutiny meeting in January.

But council leader Pete Marland said there were no plans to end weekly collections and dismissed the claims as a lie.

The leaflets claim Rishi Sharda (left) will "save weekly bin collections"

The idea was discussed at a public realm and environment scrutiny meeting earlier this year.

This included a proposal to "reduce the frequency of the refuse collection from weekly to fortnightly".

Conservative councillor Peter Geary said: “These plans show Labour's intent to remove weekly collections.

"The in-depth work that has been done means this is a real proposal and I expect they will move forward with the decision shortly after the election in May.

“Of course, they will deny it and pretend their own council paper doesn’t exist. But it does and voters won’t be fooled."

However, in a statement, Mr Marland said: “MK Labour has no plans nor proposals to change weekly bin collections in Milton Keynes.

"Any statement to the contrary is a lie. The MK Conservatives have been told this and asked to retract their claim, but have so far refused."

Peter Geary (right), pictured with Ben Everitt, Conservative MP for Milton Keynes North, claimed Labour wanted to remove weekly bin collections

Also on X, Labour's Jennifer Wilson-Marklew, cabinet member for public realm, said the meeting's minutes stated further evaluation and consultation would be needed before these ideas could be taken forward.

There was no plan to do this, she added.

Labour currently runs the council as part of a progressive alliance with the Liberal Democrats.

However, two gains next month would give them enough councillors for full control.

Liberal Democrat group leader Robin Bradburn called the Conservative claims "a bare-faced lie, not based on fact".

The Green Party will have candidates standing in all 19 wards on 2 May.

Spokesman Alan Francis said "The Conservative government has made huge cuts in the funding for councils leading to a reduction in services for local residents.

"This fake row about bin collections concocted by MK Conservatives is a pathetic attempt to distract attention away from Tory government failures."