North Powys councillor takes on recycling shambles

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Under fire cabinet member Cllr Jackie Charlton has had the waste and recycling role taken away from her list of responsibilities.

The move dodges the need for an extraordinary meeting to be held to debate a motion of no confidence in Cllr Charlton, a Liberal Democrat  who represents Llangattock and Llangynidr.

On Tuesday evening, Powys council leader Cllr Jake Berriman (Liberal Democrat – Llandrindod North) took to Facebook to announce the reshuffle and has handed the responsibility to the cabinet member for regulatory services Cllr Richard Church (Liberal Democrat – Welshpool Castle), while Cllr Charlton will be left to look after delivering the council’s green agenda.

Cllr Berriman said: “Given ongoing public disquiet and member (councillors) concerns about the roll-out of recent changes to the waste and recycling service, I can see that the issue has become one of confidence in the portfolio holder.

“This is detracting from the energetic efforts being made by our hard-working staff to deliver a stable service and sustained improvements.

“With immediate effect I am, therefore, reassigning the waste and recycling function of the council to Cllr Church.

“Leaving Cllr Charlton to continue her focus on delivering the greener Powys agenda which is significant in terms of delivering our Stronger – Fairer – Greener Corporate and strategic Equalities Plan.”

Cllr Berriman continued: “I have heard the public’s concerns and listened to member councillors and I have acted decisively to provide the strongest possible assurance that I can.

“Every effort will be made to regain everyone’s trust in our highly regarded and valued waste and recycling service.”

Last Friday opposition councillor from both the Powys Independents and Conservative group joined forces to ask the new council chairman, Cllr Geoff Morgan, to hold an extraordinary meeting to debate the motion of no confidence in Cllr Charlton.

At the council’s annual meeting last Thursday, it was revealed that a motion of no confidence had been blocked from debate due to the Senedd elections.

In March, the council rolled out the new waste and recycling routes which saw problems due to uncollected waste and recycling in many parts of Powys. The issues have continued into this month, particularly impacting the Welshpool area.

A council spokesman said: “We have been honest in our publicity that we did expect some initial issues and have asked that residents bear with us whilst the routes settle down.”

This is not the first time that Cllr Charlton has faced a motion of no confidence that has not been allowed to be debated in the chamber.

In October 2024, opposition groups which also included Plaid Cymru had come together to complain about a number of issues including home to school transport, highways and recycling, climate change and de-carbonisation.

Some councillors were also unhappy about the way the car parking review had been handled.