A SENIOR Tory has attacked Kirklees Council for its perennial policy of cancelling bin collections over Christmas.

Clr David Hall, who leads the Conservative group, said of West Yorkshire’s five local authorities only Kirklees was not planning to empty household bins between Christmas and New Year.

The council announced on December 11 that bin collections will continue as normal up to and including Christmas Eve but will then cease before resuming as normal from January 4.

The break means most households will have the equivalent of one fewer bin collection over the festive period, which may be grey or green depending on their collection schedule.

Speaking at a meeting of the council’s decision-making Cabinet Clr Hall (Con, Liversedge and Gomersal) asked whether the Christmas shutdown represented an “acceptable service” for council tax-payers.

In response senior Labour councillor Naheed Mather (Lab, Dalton) said the fortnightly collection had “always delivered” the service necessary for residents.

Clr Mus Khan (Lab, Dalton) said it was a council-wide approach to encourage staff to take a break over the festive period to be able to return to work “refreshed”.

Council Leader Clr Shabir Pandor added that some council staff had not taken off any time “at all” during the coronavirus pandemic and that it had “taken a lot out of people”.

He said Kirklees had “pulled out all the stops” in its response to the health emergency and had relied on “a lot of goodwill” from key workers including refuse collectors.

He said: “I’m conscious that I don’t want to demotivate our refuse collectors, especially at this time of the year.”

Clr Paul Davies (Lab, Holme Valley South), who joined Cabinet less than a month ago, said it was right for the authority to recognise the “amazing effort” of frontline workers under “extremely difficult circumstances”.

He said the public would not begrudge them a Christmas break.

That did not satisfy Clr Hall, who said not everyone expected to receive Christmas week off “as a right” and pointed to home help staff, road sweepers, advice workers and education support.

He said: “They’re all working very, very hard and they don’t expect to get Christmas off as a right. ”

He accused the council of running “a perennial poor service” that receives complaints every year and asked whether the administration was “incapable” or “unwilling” to organise a proper household waste collection over Christmas when other neighbouring authorities were able to do so.

Speaking after the meeting Clr Hall said: “This policy will inconvenience residents, and lead to great pressure on our tips, and I would not be surprised if fly-tipping increases too.

“Yet again, this Labour Cabinet has demonstrated that it doesn’t listen, and is incapable of delivering an efficient service. And yet again, the residents pay the price.”