Members of Liverpool City Council are writing to relevant Government ministers in the hope of changing laws surrounding mandatory recycling rubbish collection in response to an ongoing feud with a private firm.
The dispute is between the council and the owners of a series of apartment blocks, HHL Property Management.
Mossley Hill Councillors, Patrick Hurley, Emily Spurrell and Andrew Foxley, say they felt they had no option but to take such action after recycling facilities for more than a hundred residents were removed from The Spinnakers in Aigburth by HHL.
There are no such legal duties for companies to provide recycling facilities for their properties.
The ward councillors will be writing to Andrea Leadsom, the Secretary of State for Environment, in an official capacity as elected members of the city council.
Several residents have raised the matter with HHL and the council is currently pursuing a number of avenues as to how to enforce the firm’s recycling responsibilities.
Sam Pyke, a resident of The Spinnakers, said: “There is a definite demand for recycling and frustration with HHL, the property management company to whom residents pay good money each month, that isn’t available. Recycling is, after all, a normal practice.”
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Labour Cllr Hurley told JMU Journalism: “HHL have removed recycling services primarily because of costs associated with decontaminating their recycling bins.
“I’m sure HHL will acknowledge that their responsibilities to residents go above and beyond the narrow interests of the financial bottom line.”
The council says it is actively trying to improve its recycling rates across the city through improved initiatives. These range from greater education of residents about what can be recycled, through to working with property management companies, private landlords, housing associations and the Merseyside Waste and Recycling Authority on a case-by-case basis.
Neil Lussley, Chief Executive Officer of HHL, said: “The Directors of the Spinnakers took the decision to remove recycling facility until such time an appropriate solution could be found. Despite proper and repeated requests to the occupiers of the flats, they were not being used correctly.
“The policy is under constant review by the Spinnakers Management Company and as soon as an appropriate solution is found the new system would be put into place.”