A QUESTION about glass recycling caused a wild rumpus in the council chamber when Wokingham Borough Council met on Thursday, February 22.
Resident David Hare wanted to know when the council would start kerbside recycling.
Cllr Norman Jorgensen started his answer by ripping apart a claim in a recent Liberal Democrat leaflet. The opposition party said that the weekly bin collections had been retained as a result of its campaigning.
Cllr Jorgensen said: “It has been the policy of the Conservative group on this council for many years to retain weekly waste collections.
“That is another Liberal myth busted.”
To increasing jeers from Cllr Lindsay Ferris, the Liberal Democrat leader, and colleague Cllr Prue Bray, Cllr Jorgensen then read out a list of Liberal Democrat-run councils that have fortnightly bin collections.
After intervention from the mayor, Cllr Jorgensen then spoke about glass recycling, saying that it needed special collection vehicles with lots of different compartments for different coloured glass.
“Such vehicles would be expensive to buy and operate,” he warned.
Mr Hare complained about Cllr Jorgensen’s reply in his follow-up question, accusing him of lying.
He then asked why the council hadn’t taken the opportunity, when extending recycling of plastics and buying new vehicles for waste collection, to buy ones that could collect glass.
Cllr Jorgensen again said it would be too expensive.
“It all costs a lot of money,” he said.