Some misunderstanding!

An offer of assistance with garden waste collections from Runnymede Council? Misunderstandings cleared up.

Elmbridge Borough Council has taken the extraordinary step of quashing the rumours started by Cllr John Cope, Leader of the Conservatives. He has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims that Runnymede Borough Council has offered to assist EBC with garden waste collections whilst the service is temporarily suspended due to the ongoing HGV driver shortage. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/57810729

The first we (the Administration and the officers) heard of this claim was at the Council meeting on 29th September, when Cllr Cope accused EBC Leader, Cllr Chris Sadler, of having been on the receiving end of an offer of help from Runnymede and ‘failing to follow it up.’ A baffled Cllr Sadler confirmed that he had not received any such offer and asked for a paper trail in order to be able to track down the precise details.

No such paper trail was received. The same question was tabled by former Conservative Leader, Cllr Browne, for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the 21st October. LibDem Cllr Ashley Tilling, Portfolio holder for the Environment, checked with EBC and JWS* officers before the meeting and no-one had received any offers of help from Runnymede BC. Cllr Tilling asked Cllr Browne if he could supply any details so that this could be followed up; none were forthcoming.

The same claim of an offer was again made in the Council meeting on 8th December. But a new twist was added. This time Cllr Cope accompanied his claims with a ‘paper trail’ in the form of an email he had received that very day (8th December) from the Leader of Runnymede Council, Cllr Nick Prescot, which he claimed ‘confirmed his earlier offer.’

In fact, careful reading of the Runnymede Leader’s letter only served to confirm what Cllr Sadler had been saying all along.  There was never any formal offer of assistance to Elmbridge to help with the current crisis, just informal conversations at Surrey-wide meetings in the context of shared services generally. As Cllr Prescot clearly says in his email, these discussions were about:  “.. shared services….like CCTV, procurement, IT etc.”

To avoid any further doubt, we can also quote from Cllr Prescot’s email. He claims: “I have mentioned the offer of mutual assistance with the Leader of EBC, Cllr Chris Sadler, to offer our support to rescue garden waste collection services in Elmbridge. It was our (sic) intention that this would lead to further conversations of having a shared service in the future.”

Today, 16th December, EBC has issued a statement to quash the rumours that Runnymede offered help which was refused. They highlight the following:

1          EBC approached a number of other local Councils, including Runnymede, some months ago when it was becoming clear the garden waste service was under threat, to see if any assistance could be provided. No offer was forthcoming from any other borough at that time, or since, including Runnymede.

2          Senior Officers from Runnymede have confirmed that Cllr Prescot’s verbal offer was intended to refer to exploring the possibility of shared services in the medium term, not as a solution to the current garden waste situation.

3          Senior Officers at Runnymede have also confirmed that they have no capacity to help Elmbridge with garden waste collections at the current time, or in the immediate future.

4          The Energy & Sustainability Committee in Runnymede (the Committee that has responsibility for garden waste collections) has never discussed the possibility of helping Elmbridge Borough Council.

We too hope that this helps clear up any continuing misunderstandings that Cllr Cope and his colleagues may have. It is deeply regrettable that their misreading of the situation has led to unpleasant exchanges in the Council Chamber and personal attacks on social media that have called into question the integrity of Cllr Sadler and the actions of the Administration, who have steadfastly stuck to the facts throughout.

EBC and the rest of our partners in the Joint Waste Solutions group remain deeply concerned about our contractor’s inability to deliver the garden waste collections service that many of our residents have come to rely on and we remain committed to restoring the service as soon as we can.

*EBC is part of the Joint Waste Solutions (JWS) contract operated with Woking, Mole Valley and Surrey Heath councils and are in no position to unilaterally discuss alternative contractual arrangements at this stage.