Oxford City Council made the first major mistake in its policy to move to alternate weekly collections when it failed to conduct a Health Risk Assessment for before launching the scheme. If it had, maybe the problems of densely populated inner city areas, with terraced houses and multiple occupancy lettings might have crossed their minds. Is this 'Waste Management'?

Other cities smaller than Oxford, such as Winchester, did its own careful assessment and soon realized AWCs would not work for them—and they have far less residential density than Oxford City. Is this 'Good Practice?'

The City Council claimed that it could no longer afford weekly waste collections. Now it is evident that coping with the problems—dispatching extra vehicles to filthy areas, introducing a pilot scheme of weekly food waste collections (not all household waste as before) and the lack of a high capacity disposal centre within Oxfordshire—is costing them more. More 'Rubbish Systems'!
Phyllis Starkey (MP Lab.) recommended weekly waste collections in last year's Select Committee Report on the roll-out of this scheme nationwide. Recently she has asserted that few inner city areas run the scheme – and she used to be a Jericho resident! Besides, Oxford campaigners had expressly informed her on the city's 'Stinking Spires'.

Every city has vermin. True. But the rise in the rat population in Oxford is worrying its citizens. Of course there is a rise in figures for green waste—garden cuttings—but many people don't have big gardens. They don't even have the space to store a wheelie bin and two boxes in a back yard.
Only 5-6% of total landfill waste is domestic. What about regulating industry and manufacturing?

The Conservative Party believes in creating stronger communities. If you degrade the environment, then you degrade people's sense of ownership and social responsibility. Let's be proud of Oxford City. Clean it up!