WILSTEAD WOMEN'S INSTITUTE

Wilstead WI Committee show off some of their 40 new mugs

Wilstead Women's Institute has 43 members and is one of the largest village branches in Bedfordshire. Nationally, the Women's Institute has over 200,000 members and is a force to be reckoned with as Tony Blair discovered in 1997 soon after his election as Prime Minister. Blair attended the National WI Conference at the Royal Albert Hall and made the mistake of patronising the large female audience and made a blatantly party political speech to a non-political organisation. His reward was slow handclapping and humiliation by thousands of women.

Recently I gave Wilstead WI a small grant from my Community Leaders' Fund to buy 40 new mugs and last week I went along to celebrate with them and enjoy a cup of tea and some homemade cake. I also enjoyed an interesting talk from Trevor Gunton, a retired RSPB officer on his travels around the UK's Offshore Islands and wildlife watching.

This has been another busy week, culminating in a visit to Essex today to see an MBT (Mechanical and Biological Treatment Plant) one possible solution to reducing the waste going into Landfill. However it is a messier and more expensive process than the modern EfW (Energy from Waste) Plant I viewed in Portsmouth, which generates electricity on site and is cost effective.

RECYCLING WASTE

Much of a Councillor's daily work is mundane and we rarely receive compliments, but last week a resident thanked me for my help over a recycling issue. She had tried without success to get a green bin from Bedford Borough Council to recycle her garden waste, so she wrote to me last Sunday evening.

I followed up the problem immediately and on Tuesday a new green bin was delivered to the resident who then emailed me:

"I had a pleasant surprise this evening when I returned home - to find a green bin waiting outside my house. This must be some sort of record for dealing with a resident's concern! I am beyond impressed! Thank you very much indeed for your help"

Councils are keen to increase their recycling rates because the Government is discouraging the use of landfill sites and is introducing punitive Landfill Taxes which council taxpayers will have to pay if recycling rates do not rise rapidly.

Bedfordshire has a Waste Management Strategy to increase recycling eg the Barkers Lane Household Waste Recycling Site in Bedford was refurbished and achieved 80% recycling for the first time in June. The County recycling figure for June was 45%,
5.4% more than 2007. Bedford households will soon have orange lidded bins to increase their dry recycling, as well as green lidded bins for garden waste, reducing dramatically the amount of waste from black bins going to landfill.

Remember that the more waste you recycle, the less landfill tax you will pay in future years.