West End Letters: Young and old residents | Cllr Angela Harvey | www.westminster.gov.uk/wasteconsultation2010

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 26 September 2008

Wanted: young and old residents to ‘talk dirt’

• RUBBISH is something on which everybody seems to have an opinion.
Indeed it is barely out of the national news, but often for the wrong reasons.
In Westminster we have one of the best waste collection and street cleansing services in the country, but it comes at a huge cost – a total of a quarter of a billion pounds over seven years.
The contract is now up for renewal and we have now opened public consultation on this matter, which residents tell us is hugely important to them.
As the chair of the committee responsible for holding the council to account I want to ensure we offer our residents the best value possible while delivering the highest level of service.
Young people are often the greatest advocates of recycling and they hold great sway in helping their families change their habits.
But whatever our age, we all need to do what we can to help the environment. We must reduce, reuse and recycle so that we can lessen waste and improve our recycling rate from the current 23 per cent.
This is a particularly tough call here in Westminster, as it is densely populated and nearly 90 per cent of our residents live in flats.
To further increase our rates I feel it is vital we tap into the great resource of youthful enthusiasm and engage fully with schools, youth clubs, and family groups.
Residents repeatedly tell us that top of their priorities is to keep our streets clean. We are used to dealing with the huge volume of waste generated by more than a million visitors a day. When the eyes of the world will be on us for the Olympics in 2012 we plan to win gold in the rubbish stakes!
We’d be delighted to hear from any and all of your readers, of any age, with their ideas on how we can further reduce, reuse and recycle.

Please go online at www.westminster.gov.uk/wasteconsultation2010, email wastecontract2010@westminster. gov.uk or write to us at Waste Contract team, 10th Floor East, Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QP.
Hard copy questionnaires will be in all our libraries shortly.
I’d also be very happy for people to come along to our next committee meeting on this subject on December 1 at 7pm at Westminster City Hall, and hear directly from them.
Cllr Angela Harvey
Chair of the Built Environment Policy & Scrutiny Committee
Westminster City Council

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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