Marple tip closing for a while - who knows?

If local councils have one function left then it is the job of collecting the rubbish. In recent months our local authority, Stockport, through Greater Manchester Waste, has moved to collecting material for recycling and encouraging us to use blue, brown and green bins. The net effect has meant we no longer take all our waste newspaper, card, plastic, bottles and garden waste to Rose Hill tip.

I found out through the Marple massive we've formed on Twitter - notably Lord Roberts of Marple - that Rose Hill tip is to close for a period for an upgrade. In turn he directed us to the Marple community website, for the news here.

Search on Google for a bit more information and you get this, here, news that there will be no disruption to the facility as a result of the works which start at the end of March.

Though the official information is here:

Regarding the HWRC at Rose Hill in Marple the date of closure is 10th May 2010 and is due to re-open 10th Jan 2011 but Bredbury HWRC’s opening date, 1st May 2010, as alternative facility to use instead of Rose Hill.

I'm told that residents of the immediate area were given leaflets and there was even an exhibition at the Dale Primary School. And yet a large proportion of the local population are none the wiser. I don't recall seeing anything in the council rag, and there are no posters or signs up at the tip itself.

Confusing, isn't it? I don't want to go on about this particular local issue overmuch. My point is a wider one. A disfunction in communication, democracy and local media is playing out here. Where was a local newspaper campaign? Well forget that right away. The Stockport Express has simply become irrelevant to our lives. How then are major civic changes like this to be communicated? Where else can a body whch takes the thick end of £200 a month from us inform us in return about the most basic of services? There are moves to develop hyperlocal media, but no-one has worked out a business model to make it work. There are the beginnings in this story of how information may be spread in the future. I think it's an opportunity, but who will make the move?