There's been further criticism of the Council's handling of the rubbish contract.

Last week it was announced that Council Leader, Julian Bell, and Cabinet member, Bassam Mahfouz, would be doing spot checks across the Borough to see for themselves how many areas were still encountering problems with Enterprise.

However Conservative Councillor Phil Taylor, Shadow Cabinet Member for Transport & Environment is unhappy that ward councillors are not being informed when this is happening.

He said:

''Local councillors typically know their areas really well whereas the council leader, Julian Bell, and the portfolio holder responsible for the Ealing rubbish fiasco, Bassam Mahfouz, simply do not know the problem areas across the whole borough and are likely to miss them.

''Our streets have got visibly dirtier since Enterprise took over street cleaning in April. Council figures released in an official answer show that half of streets checked in May (47%) were unacceptably dirty compared to only 7% the previous May.

''The Labour leadership seem to be more interested in being seen to do something rather than actually cleaning up Ealing. If they were serious they would want to include local councillors in these spot checks and make use of their local knowledge. It seems that they are more interested in photo opportunities than clean streets.

Council Leader, Julian Bell, and Councillor, Bassam Mahfouz have sent this joint response:

'' These are intended as spot checks to ensure the senior management of Enterprise know exactly what the issues that we as the cabinet member and leader have seen with our own eyes.

''What we are looking to do is to have 'ward walkabouts' with councillors after the summer break.  These will not be so much spot checks but more general checks.  These therefore need not be aligned with collection and street cleaning days.

''We have both been cycling around the borough to have an in depth knowledge of the issues faced in order to keep Enterprise on track to improve their service.

 

5th July 2012