Thousands of collections a week missed
NUMBERS of missed bin collections have soared by 5,000 a week since the start of industrial action by the council binmen.
But new figures show missed collections were already rapidly increasing in the week running up to the first walkout on June 30, according to official figures – with nearly 900 a day being reported.
At the start of June there were fewer than 1,000 reported missed collection per week from the 400,000 households served by the city council.
But this had risen to 6,916 by the last week of June and 5,537 for just four days between July 2 and 6 – the latest days for which the data is currently available.
The council stressed this was not the total number of collections missed – only the number of reports from residents and includes residual waste, recycling and garden waste collections.
Further figures released to councillors also showed that 81 per cent of missed collections were not being picked up the next day – compared to 67 per cent last year.
The council insists it is trying to overhaul the service after overspending by £8.4 million on agency staff and overtime last year. It has proposed scrapping a middle tier of supervisors, turning costly agency staff into full-time employees, cancelling overtime and switching from a four to a five-day week rota.