We in UKIP support today’s Conservative motion. We are also concerned at the public health implications of reducing rubbish collections, and we acknowledge a likely connection between reducing collections and seeing a consequent increase in fly-tipping.

There has been a drive by councils across Wales in recent years to reduce collections in order to meet Welsh Government recycling targets. We do acknowledge that, statistically, the Welsh Government has performed well in terms of recycling rates, but we would ask: at what cost? Here in Cardiff, there have been several changes to the rubbish collections in recent years. Currently, there is a black bag collection every fortnight and one is limited to how many bags one can put out. However, the reduction, even from a weekly to a fortnightly collection, has been accompanied by fairly sizable anecdotal evidence of increased fly-tipping. This has been a major feature of the letters page in the ‘South Wales Echo’, and a recurring feature at that, with readers sending in considerable photographic evidence of fly-tipping in their area. This led to the council having to introduce a ‘Let’s clean up the streets’ campaign at the end of last year.

So, what does the available factual data reveal about fly-tipping in Cardiff? In 2015-16, Cardiff recorded the largest increase in fly-tipping incidents of any council in Wales. Across Wales as a whole, fly-tipping increased by 14 per cent during this period, when many councils changed their collection policies to comply with recycling targets. Surely this indicates a causal link between reducing rubbish collections and increasing fly-tipping, but both Labour and Plaid Cymru in their amendments today seem to deny this link. This seems to be flying in the face of the evidence.