The public meeting had been organised to help inform people and to listen to views on whether household waste should continue to be collected by means of bags, or whether the District Council should adopt bins (used in most of the country.)

The topic has excited a lot of interest and the party had chosen a good time to call the meeting as it followed hard on the heels of an announcement that the District Council will hold a referendum before making a final decision.

The guest speakers were Cllr. Louise Bloom, the portfolio holder for the Environment on Eastleigh Borough Council and Cllr. Steve Shepherd, Lib Dem Spokesman for the Environment on New Forest District Council.

Eastleigh uses bins on an alternate weekly collection basis and has one the best re-cyling rate in the County, at about 40%. The New Forest has achieved a recycling rate of nearly 25% but there are doubts about the capacity to improve much upon this whilst using the bag system. The government are likely to press all local authorities to improve rates to something nearer 50%.

Cllr. Louise Bloom outlined the scheme in Eastleigh and said that it had proved quite popular. Many Eastleigh residents are quite proud of their re-cycling record and the Lib Dems administration had been able to deal with many of the concerns and practical difficulties with the operation of the scheme.

Cllr. Shepherd said that he was not yet convinced that using bins was the right way forward for the New Forest. He outlined some of the broader issues to do with waste management. He said that he had come along to hear residents' views and echoed some of the fears expressed by the public about where to store bins, the visual impact and some of the practical difficulties.

There was a lot of questioning but no attempt to persuade the audience one way or the other. The local party want to help people think about the issue by providing information so that they can make their own minds up. At a vote taken at the end of the meeting most people favoured retaining the bag system, although a few people had switched from preferring bags to bins, (having heard the presentations and discussions).

Cllr Alan Weeks, who chaired the meeting said "It was a great turn-out, especially for a wet and cold March evening. Some people say that there is no future in public meetings but I think we have shown this is not true. Over refreshments afterwards, I got a lot of positive feedback. We chose an issue people care about and the public like a chance to put their views across".