THURROCK Council Leader Councillor Andrew Jefferies has been accused of either misleading councillors or just not having a clue what’s going on say Labour.
Labour Councillor, Val Morris-Cook has challenged him to come clean and set the record straight after Councillor Jeffries exaggerated take-up of the new £80 Conservative charge for use of a brown bin for garden waste.
The Council Leader was responding to a question about the huge cuts to the Borough’s refuse collection services. He told the full council that the take-up of his £80 charge had already achieved 20% or 11,650 permits issued, when it is currently just over 4% or 2,884.
With break-even at 20% take-up, failure to achieve anything like the 20% figure would lead to a budget shortfall of up to £700,000 and put more pressure on the beleaguered services of the cash-strapped council say Labour.
Councillor Val Morris-Cook (Shadow Cabinet Member for Environmental Services) said: “It is very disappointing I did not have the opportunity to correct Councillor Jefferies’ as he used information that I knew was wrong.
“Councillor Jefferies either knew what he was saying was incorrect and tried to mislead councillors and the public to cover for a potential budget shortfall, or he just doesn’t have a clue what’s going on. “Whatever it is, he got it wrong. He should now come clean and set the record straight.”
Tory councillor s can’t clean their own party let alone the borough. Like many other people when both my bins are full I use the bins in town centre for my waste.
I used to recycle but my bin is full by mid week, so I have to mix general waste with recycle waste.