LARGE chunks of Ilkley should be exempt from Bradford Council's wheelie bin revolution, it has been claimed.

District councillor Anne Hawkesworth (Con, Ilkley) is dismayed by the prospect of bins, but believes the council will struggle to implement the scheme if it follows its own wheelie strategy.

Coun Hawkesworth, (pictured right), said: "I think we have to look at the council's proposals for the introduction of the bins.

"I accept they have said that cases where difficulties could arise will be looked into, but what about Ilkley as a whole?"

A council officer's report to the housing and environmental protection committee contains a question and answer section about the bins.

Special arrangements are promised for the elderly (if there is no-one else in the house able to assist), the disabled, the infirm, and certain cases where steps and steep drives mean a wheelie bin is not suitable.

Coun Hawkesworth believes the council faces a headache if it adopts these 'special arrangements.'

"If you take all these points together, surely Ilkley, or at least large parts of Ilkley, fall into these categories," she said.

Coun Hawkesworth has argued there should be a horses for courses approach to the scheme. She believes a wheelie bin scheme may be acceptable for certain areas of the city but not district-wide.

"I think it is about time the public of Ilkley was made aware of the effects of wheelie bins. I think they have thought about the threat rather than seen it as a reality," she said.

Her comments followed a meeting of the full council which agreed to adopt wheelie bins - meaning 180,000 households face changes to their refuse collection during the three year phasing in period.

The decision has also angered Coun Martin Smith (Con, Ilkley) the opposition spokesman on the wheelie bin issue.

Coun Smith has argued the scheme is a way of introducing a 'do it yourself' rubbish scheme.

He said: "We are not the serfs of the council controlling group. We, the public, require a service, not the other way round."

Coun Smith said: "With the percentage of elderly in some areas up to 80 per cent of a street, some streets will still need bag collection or assistance. This cost has not been evaluated."

The arguments have been dismissed by Coun Keith Thomson, chairman of the council's waste management sub committee.

He said the scheme was essential to slash the cost of landfill and that the 'difficult bits' should not be allowed to spoil the whole system.

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