After weeks of filling the letters pages with negativity and Green-bashing, Cllr Warren Morgan has finally put forward his ‘positive’ policies for the council elections (The Argus, April 8), which turn out to be a mish-mash of things already delivered and ambitions without any clear idea on how to achieve them.

A core Labour proposal is for a new secondary school, but this is already happening. Greens have done this and it’s been on the front page of the Argus (March 17).

Equally, licensing private landlords and raising standards for tenants was introduced some time ago by the Greens.

It has led to improvements, notably higher fire safety standards, and will do much more as it becomes properly embedded.

I’m not clear why things that already happening are in the Labour manifesto but that is Coun Morgan’s prerogative.

We would all agree on ending youth unemployment and homelessness but no single council can deliver them, especially not when facing a higher level of government cuts in coming years than we have suffered so far.

While austerity remains centre stage, which both Labour and Conservative parties are committed to, they will remain ambitions.

And so to the thorny issue of refuse and recycling. I’d be the first to admit that, through years of government cuts, and having inherited an poor recycling record, the Greens have sadly not been able to turn the giant recycling ship around in one council term.

But where Coun Morgan will ‘improve refuse collection and recycling’ without any clue as to how, the Green manifesto is clear.

The black box recycling scheme that has dominated city households for years is not fit for purpose. The boxes don’t work, especially in flats and bedsits, and they’re an eyesore on pavements.

So Greens will consult residents on replacing them with better schemes, which may be communal bins where appropriate and new wheelie bins where appropriate. Neighbourhoods will have a say.

We will also introduce an optional garden waste collection scheme (which is what puts top-performing councils at the top).

With the city’s recent delivery of new collection trucks, and with a current redesign of the refuse, recycling and street cleaning services, Greens are firmly on track to deliver on this.

Meanwhile, at the negative end, Coun Morgan admits Labour is committed to halting Green-led improvements that are making such a difference to the city.

No rejuvenation, no safer streets, no rolling back of pollution but instead a return to the decline, decay and lack of investment that the Greens found when we took office four years ago.

Is that a vision for the city that is nowadays more loved by its residents than any other in the UK?

Rob Shepherd,

Green Party council candidate for Preston Park