Coalition's 'hands tied' over fortnightly bin plan

Labour says it is too late to make changes to an incoming waste contract

Plans for fortnightly wheelie bin collections are unlikely to be scrapped under a council's new administration after the Labour group leader said its “hands are tied”.

A Labour-led coalition with Lib Dems and Independent members is set to take control of Southend Council from the Conservatives.

Its contract with current waste collectors Veolia runs out in 2025 and a controversial new plan includes wheelie bins being collected fortnightly, instead of waste sacks.

Daniel Cowan, leader of the Labour group, said contract negotiations were too far advanced to change the plan now, but Conservative council leader Tony Cox said: "Here we go, broken promise number one."

The council's contract with Veolia runs out in 2025

Residents have raised concerns that properties in some built-up areas would not have room for wheelie bins and said collection day could become chaotic.

Mr Cowan said contractors had submitted their bids based on fortnightly collection contract and changing now would leave the council "very exposed".

“Unfortunately our hands are tied "We’re far too far along the contract negotiations to move goal posts now," he said.

"The current administration set out the contract details in October."

Martin Terry, spokesman for the Independent group said details of the contract still had to be ironed out, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

“The problem we now have is that the tendering process that the Conservatives committed to back in October to a fortnightly collection and we are very late in the process now," he said.

A vote to go forward on the waste contract, including fortnightly collections, was deferred by the Conservatives until after the local elections because they alleged the issue was being used as a "political football".

It will now take place at full council under the new administration.

Tony Cox, current leader of the council, said: “In their election literature they said the contract could be overturned.

"Here we go, broken promise number one. We did say if they wanted to make changes they could do because we didn’t take the final paper through.

"Coalition of chaos already.”