City Hall recycles less than Westminster's residents

7.51.49pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 6th Aug 2007

Westminster City Hall produces a lot of rubbish!

City Hall, home of Westminster City Council, is recycling less of its waste than the average Westminster resident, according to the latest statistics released to a local LibDem under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

Staff working in the building generated 504 tonnes of waste between April 2006 and March 2007, with only 17% of that waste (87 tonnes) sent for recycling. Local residents were already managing to recycle more of their waste (19%) the year before.

Reacting, local LibDem Stuart Bonar said, "It's do as we say, not as we do from this Tory administration. City Hall is an office. Most of its waste must be paper and the like. That is the easiest thing in the world to recycle. Yet the Conservative-run council does not seem to have sorted it out."

Stuart also lodged a FOI request to find out what recycling facilities exist for staff at City Hall. This was lodged with the Council on 18th June. It was given a target completion date by the Council of 16th July. Despite repeated attempts by Stuart to ask for either an answer or an explanation as to why he has not yet received a response, as of today [6th August] he has heard nothing. He is today therefore writing formally to the Council to demand that his latest request for information about recycling facilities in City Hall is answered.

He added, "At the local elections last year, when they were re-elected here in Westminster, the Tory campaign slogan was 'vote blue, go green'. Just like everything else David Cameron says and does, it's nothing but hollow rhetoric. Thank goodness, with their opinion polls dropping like a stone, the voters have realised that this is nothing more than soulless spin."