Douglas MHKs have banded together to call on Douglas Council to reverse its decision to cut bin services.

The council controversially decided to cut bin collections down to fortnightly earlier this year, in an attempt to increase recycling in the capital.

Over the weekend, Douglas North MHK David Ashford released an open letter he had sent to council leader Claire Wells, in which he called on the local authority to reverse its policy.

He said: ‘From what I can see this is no longer about a policy, but imposing a political dogma on residents despite the mounting evidence this policy is just not working in its current form and actually having a detrimental impact, instead of reconsidering the position or looking to change the system, the council appears to have dug its heels in and refuses to accept that anything is wrong.’

Mr Ashford also criticised the idea that residents could apply for additional bins on the condition of having an audit taken of their household waste, which he said had the potential to be ‘embarrassing and humiliating’.

He added: ‘This policy is developing into a “Big Brother” system where the council knows best and seems to believe it has the right of oversight and instruction over how people decide to live their lives.’

After Mr Ashford shared this letter, as well as more than 100 pictures of overflowing bins sent to him by Douglas residents, he found support not only with residents and businesses, but also from his fellow MHKs across the capital. Douglas South MHK Claire Christian said: ‘I fully support David’s comments and raised my concerns two weeks ago with Douglas South councillors. At which time I have asked for a meeting to try to resolve issues.

‘The three councillors replied they would agree to a meeting, but the general feeling from the leader of council was that this would not be changed.

‘However, now this has more backing from more MHKs including Ann Corlett (Douglas Central) and John Wannenburgh (Douglas North) as well as David Ashford I hope that at least a meeting will happen and concerns are listened to.’

Douglas Council was invited to comment on the issues raised by Mr Ashford and his fellow MHKs, but had not done so at the time the Examiner went to press.