Charge forces green pupils to sacrifice play

Buy photos » Headteacher Janet Satchwell with Coun Peter Barnes and pupils Daisy, Jade, Morgan and James who are among children who sacrificed play equipment to get their waste recycled 49.011.031.strat.nc1 www.buyphotos247.com

GREEN-THINKING youngsters at Salford Priors Primary School sacrificed new play equipment to recycle their waste after council chiefs refused to back down over new charges.

Back in October we reported council bosses had agreed to re-think a new charge to schools in the district to collect their recycling waste after Coun Peter Barnes raised concerns at a meeting, but so far there has been no U-turn.

Stratford District Council has since agreed to give the school, near Bidford, new bins, but it still had no way of disposing of the recyclable waste so the bins began to overflow.

And pupils were so concerned they agreed to use £80 they had raised for new play equipment to go towards the council's yearly charge of £130 to reinstate the service and get them emptied.

Assistant headteacher, Toni Monkhouse, said the children had agreed to use the money as a last resort.

She said: "We have contacted the council several times but they aren't willing to reinstate the service unless we pay.

"They gave us new bins but the problem is there is no way for us to get rid of it so they were just overflowing.

"It doesn't sound like a lot of money but it is to us and we were really struggling to find a way to pay for it.

"So the children had saved up around £80 through the school council which was going to pay for new play equipment for the summer but they said they wanted it to go towards reinstating the service.

"It just shows how important it is to them - they take it very seriously. It is a shame it has come to this."

A district council spokesperson told the Observer most of the 65 schools who previously received the service free of charge had signed up to the new charges and stressed the council could no longer afford to offer the service for nothing due to its own budget being cut.

Headteacher Janet Satchwell with Coun Peter Barnes and pupils Daisy, Jade, Morgan and James who are among children who sacrificed play equipment to get their waste recycled 49.011.031.strat.nc1 www.buyphotos247.