Tim Cutter, Southampton Socialist Party
On 15 July, Southampton Socialist Party, TUSC and members of the local community lobbied Southampton City Council and made a deputation to the council over the issue of fly-tipping and calling for the restoration of the free bulk collection service.
During the May local elections in Bevois ward we pledged to take our campaign to the chamber, whether we won or lost the election. We stuck to our commitment and took our campaign to the full council meeting.
Socialist Party member Carina and myself made the deputation. We pointed out that many of the candidates had promised to do something about the issue of fly-tipping, yet it wasn’t even on the council meeting agenda. It was only being discussed because of our campaign and the lobby.
We pointed out that the cost of restoring free bulk collections is a drop in the ocean compared to the millions of pounds the council has in reserve. With the cost-of-living crisis forcing many families to make impossible choices on where to spend what little money that they have, charging them a minimum of £23 to have their broken household items collected was an unaffordable option.
Outside the council, Socialist Party member and president of Southampton trades council, Maggie Fricker linked the issue of fly tipping to all the other issues facing our communities and called for the council to set a needs-based, no-cuts people’s budget.
There was also a protest in support of LGBQT+ rights, against a motion to the council from a Reform councillor aimed at preventing the council from flying the rainbow flag. Socialist Party members supported this protest.
As a result of our campaign, the Labour council leader offered to meet with us to discuss the issue of restoring the free bulk collection and dealing with fly-tipping.
Although we welcome this, words are meaningless without action. We showed that we were not going away and the campaign continues as part of a wider campaign for a people’s budget and city-wide campaign to fight for the return of millions of pounds stolen from the council over years of austerity.
