Months of disputes over bin collections erupted into a blazing row as Labour and the Conservatives clashed at an environment committee meeting last night (June 5).

Committee members refused to back a call from Labour’s environment spokesperson Cllr Alan Schneiderman to hold an inquiry into ongoing problems at the Oakleigh Road depot that have led to missed collections across the borough.

The Tory-dominated committee voted in favour of a recommendation pledging to keep weekly waste collections – despite scrapping the separate food waste collection and pausing garden waste collections during the winter.

Members also voted in favour of garden waste collections being suspended for six weeks in the winter – instead of the previously announced three-month pause – and to explore ways of allowing residents who wanted to recycle their food waste to continue do so.

This provoked an angry reaction from Cllr Schneiderman, who protested against policies apparently being made on the hoof.

He said: “Can I suggest the whole report is withdrawn? You are turning this council into a total farce! This is no way to run a council.”

A heated row also broke out when Cllr Schneiderman suggested chair of the committee Cllr Dean Cohen had known about the proposed bin collection changes – which were not in the Conservative manifesto – before the local elections.

Cllr Schneiderman said: “You knew about this before the election and deliberately kept it secret. What else is going to come out?

“Before the election, you should have come clean and said this is what you proposed to do!”

Cllr Cohen replied: “No members were provided with any of this information prior to the election.”

There was further uproar when members suggested one option for people wanting to get rid of their unwanted brown plastic waste bins was to put them in their black refuse sacks.

The council was accused of a lack of transparency after revealing food waste collections had been sent to produce methane via an anaerobic digester instead of composted since December.

Strategic director of environment Jamie Blake said all the waste collected in the borough went to an energy-from-waste plant, which would not change if brown bin collections were scrapped.

Cllr Geof Cooke, Labour member for Woodhouse, said: “The public is encouraged to go and get compostable sacks, and on the sacks it says ‘recycled in Barnet’.

“Food waste has been collected under false pretences for the last few months.

“There is a big transparency issue.”

Mr Blake said the decision to include food waste in the refuse collections would only lead to a 2 per cent fall in recycling from the current 39 per cent – already one of the best rates in London.

Residents have faced months of missed collections and delays after a section of flooring at the newly-constructed Oakleigh Depot began to break up, causing access problems for lorries.

Mr Blake said the floor was relaid by contractor Willmott Dixon at its own expense and the council expected to receive at least £14,000 in compensation from the firm as a result of other failings.

The problems with the depot floor had been compounded by an “unprecedented” number of vehicle breakdowns – on one day, 13 breakdowns were reported due to similar issues.

Although members rejected Cllr Schneiderman’s call for an inquiry, Mr Blake said members would be informed of the outcome of investigations into the problems.