The Zurrieq local council is for bring-in sites but while the Nationalist members want their immediate introduction their Labour colleagues insist residents should be educated first.

At a council meeting last Monday, the majority of councillors turned down a motion presented by Nationalist councillors Melvyn Mangion and Mario Ellul proposing that bring-in sites should be introduced immediately in four different areas of the locality: Bubaqra, Nigret, in an area known as Tal-Bebbux and in De Giovanni Inglott Street, close to the village centre.

The motion said Zurrieq residents should avail themselves of bring-in sites because the government was allocating Lm1,600 for the purpose. According to Mr Mangion and Mr Ellul, if bring-in sites were introduced in the village, Zurrieq residents would not have to carry their waste to other localities to deposit it in bring-in sites there.

Labour councillors Claudio Zammit, Joseph D'Amato and Raymond Grixti, together with mayor Ignatius Farrugia (vice-mayor Silvio Izzo Savona was not at the meeting when the motion was being tabled), rejected the proposal on grounds that residents had to be educated before the council introduced bring-in sites.

In a counter-motion, this time turned down by the Nationalist councillors, the MLP councillors proposed to introduce bring-in sites "at a time when the council deems opportune".

The council would carry out an education campaign on how to separate waste and, after consulting residents, the council would choose where bring-in sites could be placed.

"We want to avoid a situation where bring-in sites become little 'Maghtabs'. When we had green skips, people used to deposit all sorts of rubbish in, on and around the skips. We don't want that to happen again," the mayor told The Times.

"Of course we agree with introducing bring-in sites. However, we need to educate the people first," Mr Farrugia reiterated, adding that the council would be carrying out a survey to see what people think of bring-in sites.

The Nationalist councillors said in a statement that Zurrieq was the only locality resisting the introduction of bring-in sites.

Information provided by WasteServ showed that all councils on the islands had introduced bring-in sites or were in the process of choosing where bring-in sites could be placed.

In Gozo, all localities had at least one bring-in site.

Mdina was an exception because separation bins could not be placed inside the locality for aesthetic reasons and a bring-in site at the periphery would create an inconvenience for residents because elderly people mostly lived in the old city.

However, the Mdina local council and WasteServ were in the process of drafting a tender for door-to-door collection of waste separated at source.

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