Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:41 pm on 20 February 2019.
Thank you for that answer, Deputy Minister. You will have read with some concern, no doubt, the reports last week that local authorities in Wales had received 87,000 complaints in relation to missed refuse collections. In my own constituency, of course, we have a regime where a missed refuse collection means that people can go up to eight weeks without having their waste collected, which is clearly unacceptable. And, in fact, in Conwy, around 10 per cent of the 87,000 complaints related to that one particular local authority.
Now, the local authorities in Wales have to abide by Welsh Government rules. What many people in my constituency are asking for is, yes, better reflection within the local government funding formula to make sure that there's a fair settlement for the local authority of Conwy, but in addition they're also asking for the Welsh Government to protect local communities by insisting that local councils collect waste on a more frequent basis. So, I would be grateful if you could tell me what you're doing to look at the funding formula to make sure that it's fair to north Wales and to Conwy in particular, and what work you are doing with your officials to look at the timeliness and the frequency of waste collections in order to protect the public from the potential harms that can come about to the environment and their public health?