A local tip campaigner says he is taking things to a higher level after the county council rejected his argument in favour of providing access to Wrexham's Plas Madoc household recycling centre for residents of the Dee Valley.
Earlier this year Phil Jones organised a 900-signature petition calling for an agreement between Denbighshire and Wrexham councils which would mean local people would no longer have to drive over to Ruthin use the to tip there.
In his latest update on the campaign he says:
"Have you ever marked your own homework? Well Denbighshire County Council has and it gave itself an A*.
"You may recall that the new Chief Executive, Mr Graham Boase, decided that my letter to him, asking him to take a fresh look at the whole issue of recycling in the Dee Valley, should be processed as a ‘complaint’.
"I was then informed that the person appointed to deal with my complaint would be Mr Tony Ward, head of service for waste.
"I asked for a different head of service to be appointed to review the case because Mr Ward is the ‘responsible officer’ for the service which is the subject of the complaint.
"How could Mr Ward be relied on to review the facts objectively, you may wonder. Well, my request was rejected without any attempt to justify or explain why it was appropriate for a head of service to be judge and jury in the review of a complaint made against his own service.
"You will not be surprised to hear that Mr Ward tells me 'the decision not to pursue the option of paying WCBC to enable residents from the Dee Valley to access the Plas Madoc recycling centre was a properly made decision'.
He also tells me: 'You are correct that this (the pop-up service at the Pavilion) is not the same level of service as you would have if you lived closer to one of our HWRC sites, but it generally seems to be well received by residents in the Dee Valley'.
"‘Well received’ by whom you might ask?
"Mr Ward makes no mention of the 900+ people who signed the petition, who are very dissatisfied with the service.
"The outcome is very clear. DCC will not listen to the express wishes of its rate-payers and will continue to spin the facts to claim it is a paragon of recycling.
"Our only recourse now is to complain to the Local Government Ombudsman. It seems the fight is not yet over, and if you feel angry about this get your friends and neighbours to sign the petition if they have not already done so.
"When elections come around its worth remembering that of the town and county councillors who are currently elected to represent the rate-payers of Llangollen, only two, Cllr John Palmer and Cllr Stuart Davies, have spoken in support of our campaign. Cllr Mile confirmed publicly that he has ‘never supported’ the campaign, why you might ask? Is anybody listening to YOUR views?"
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