KEEPING the borough beautiful is what the leader of Brentwood council sees as one of her main priorities.
Looking to the future, Louise McKinlay said: "Weekly recycling will be in as of next summer, we've got the money from the [Department for Communities and Local Government] and now we've got to order some new vehicles, got to look at the routes.
"That was a bid we put in to DCLG to be able to make sure we can collect orange bags as efficiently as possible, weekly rather than fortnightly.
"The idea behind it is that people say 'this is great, we love recycling but unless you live in a big house where do you store the bags'? People say they can have three, four or five bags, where do they go? They said it would be great if it were weekly.
"I'm sure that if people have got limited space to store the bags they might put it in a black bag, so the idea is that firstly it makes things easier for people and secondly it will drive up our recycling rates."
Brentwood Borough Council's recycling target, set by central Government, is that 55 per cent of all waste does not go to landfill by 2016.
Mrs McKinlay said the borough is currently "hovering around 50 per cent" but felt the target was "very doable" and the council could even be "more ambitious".
She continued: "It doesn't surprise me that this is a priority, clean streets, the environment, recycling.
"I think there's a marked difference, and I really notice it. If you drive out of Brentwood and you look elsewhere and you make a conscious decision to look out for litter, there is a real difference."
Cleanliness is one of the administration's key priorities set out in its corporate plan, released this month. The plan sets out the priorities for the borough from the New Year until 2016 and has drawn criticism from the council's Labour group leader Mike Le-Surf.
Writing in his blog, Mr Le-Surf said: "This really says all you need to know about this failed Conservative administration who have convinced themselves that an overwhelming desire for weekly recycling is [one of] the main issues that concerns Brentwood residents. Obscene!"
Mrs McKinlay said: "Mike has made the point at [the council] policy [meeting] 'how can you do that when you're cutting council tax benefit'?
"But I wrote the quote down last night at the meeting, he said it was the wrong priority and we said we've asked the residents and he said we're asking the wrong people."
The environment both outside and inside the town hall is on the agenda in the coming years.
Mrs McKinlay said: "We have this idea of a one-stop shop, so at the moment you come in to the town hall reception, if you want to speak to somebody in planning you then get referred to another reception in planning to speak to planning, it's just disjointed.
"I want a big transformation project, we want 80 per cent of questions answered by the first person people speak to, with the 20 per cent being more specialist, which we will always have."
The town hall – what is happening there? A scheme that would see the building shared by the council, serviced offices with space for community groups is the proposal.
Mrs McKinlay said: "We are now 18 months on, the [Town Hall Delivery Group] tasked with delivering this project, as it stands are waiting for the business case to come back to see whether it will work or not.
"There is an independent company looking at it.
"There are two bids being looked at but whether they meet the criteria is another matter. That's why I'm holding fire until that report comes back.
"If it comes back from a cost-effective basis, from a risk basis etc, it makes sense then it's got to be delivered and we need to get on and do it. If it's not, we have to draw a line in the sand and decide what we're going to do.
"And it's already been decided [the council] is staying in the town hall, before anyone suggests I'm trying to throw something else into the mix."
The group, of which former Conservative councillor Russell Quirk is chairman, is due to report back on January 14.
Concerning Mr Quirk's defection and his status as the THDG chair, Mrs McKinlay added: "When I get the report back I will make a decision, but clearly [the project] needs to be led by the administration."
