Bin rollout woes fuel calls for East Suffolk council shake-up

Why it matters: Independent county and district councillor Julia Ewart has written to East Suffolk Council's chief executive, Chris Bally, requesting an urgent meeting on the authority's governance, citing ongoing failures in its Better Recycling waste rollout as one of the reasons she believes the current Cabinet should be replaced by a cross-party administration.

The details: In a letter dated 16 July 2026, Cllr Ewart, who is Suffolk County Council's Scrutiny Chair, County Councillor for Saxmundham & District and District Councillor for Kelsale & Yoxford, said it was "becoming increasingly clear that the GLi Group, as the Cabinet, is running out of road."

She addressed the letter to Mr Bally rather than the council's political leadership because, she said, Leader of the Council Cllr Caroline Topping was currently absent.

Cllr Ewart said the Better Recycling rollout, now in its seventh week, "has generated widespread dissatisfaction amongst residents," adding that "significant failures in service delivery continue."

She also referred to comments made by local MP Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, who she said had raised the rollout in the House of Commons and described it as a failure, reporting hundreds of constituent complaints over missed collections, delayed deliveries and poor communication.

"My inbox tells me that residents are threatening to 'dump their rubbish outside Council offices', asking how they can obtain refunds on their council tax, and enquiring how they can take legal action against the Council," she wrote.

Cllr Ewart said she believed the administration's working majority had narrowed since her own departure from the GLi Group, saying: "It is our assessment that the administration no longer enjoys the secure working majority that previously underpinned its programme."

What she's proposing: In her letter, Cllr Ewart calls for a "Transitional Cross-Party Administration" – in an earlier public statement, she used the terms "Unity Administration" and "Cabinet of Unity" to describe a similar proposal – which she says would draw together councillors from across political groups and independent members "around a limited programme of governance, service delivery and an orderly transition towards Local Government Reorganisation."

She said: "It is time for immediate change. The current Cabinet has lost the confidence of many residents and the Council now needs fresh leadership capable of restoring public trust. This is no longer about party politics. It is about delivering the public services that residents rightly expect."

"A cross-party Cabinet of Unity will deliver the urgent improvements residents need, while providing stable leadership during the Council's remaining life. I will happily assist and support any new administration that puts East Suffolk and its residents ahead of party politics. That is where our focus should now be."

For context: The letter follows resident reports received by Ipswich.co.uk of missed bin collections in the Bixley and Brook Hill areas, served by East Suffolk Council. One resident said food waste caddies had not been emptied on at least two occasions with no follow-up collection arranged, and that both the paper and cardboard collection and the food caddy collection were missed in the same areas, with the paper and cardboard bins not due to be collected again for a further three weeks.

Asked about the missed collections, an East Suffolk Council spokesperson said on 3 July: "Due to last week's extreme heat, it was necessary in some areas to prioritise the collection of general and food waste bins over the green-lidded paper and card recycling bins. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. Residents in these locations whose green-lidded bins were not collected as scheduled are asked to bring their bins back from the kerbside and put them out again on their next paper and card collection day."

What's next: Responding to questions from Ipswich.co.uk, Cllr Ewart said she had not yet received a response from Mr Bally or the council, as the letter was sent only on 16 July. She said a number of councillors had indicated support for her proposal "publicly and privately."

Asked what she envisaged as the next steps, she said this would be "the resignation of the current administration which has no majority anyway." Asked about a timeframe, she said: "The sooner the better, to enable the dramatic improvement in service required, especially regarding waste services."

Cllr Ewart's letter states that the correspondence will be published following its delivery, and that she intends to release a public video setting out her reasoning.

The other side: Cllr Paul Ashton, Deputy Leader of East Suffolk Council, said: "We understand the frustration of residents, and we are sorry to anyone affected by waste collection issues following the roll-out of the Better Recycling scheme.

"We have a comprehensive action plan in place between the Council and East Suffolk Services Ltd, and officers and staff in both organisations are working hard to resolve issues. Cabinet members are close to this work and are involved in daily service performance reviews and progress checkpoints."

Cllr Ashton disputed the manner in which Cllr Ewart had raised her concerns, saying: "Cllr Ewart was invited to attend a meeting on Monday to be fully informed of the recovery plan but cancelled her attendance late on. We are therefore surprised by her decision to instead issue a press release declaring these assertions.

"The outstanding issues surrounding Better Recycling are of an operational nature that will not be resolved by changes to the composition of the Cabinet.

"We are happy to rearrange meeting with Cllr Ewart at her convenience. In the meantime, our staff will continue working extremely hard to get these issues resolved."

Separately, an East Suffolk Council spokesperson said: "The Chief Executive has today received and will be responding to Cllr Ewart's letter. However, it would be inappropriate to comment further on communication between an officer and elected council member."

The bottom line: A senior Suffolk councillor has used problems with the council's recycling rollout to make a broader case for cross-party leadership at East Suffolk Council, but the council's deputy leader has pushed back firmly, disputing both her account of a cancelled meeting and her view that changing the Cabinet's composition would fix an operational problem.

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