HAVEN’T WE BIN HERE BEFORE?

COUNCIL BLAME XMAS COLLECTION PROBLEMS ON AGENCY STAFF NOT TURNING UP FOR WORK... BUT PLAN TO USE SAME SYSTEM AGAIN THIS YEAR

AN “abysmal” bin collection service in Coventry over Christmas was down to booked agency staff simply not bothering to turn up for work, a council boss admitted.

Residents complained streets were left looking “like a refuse dump” last month after around 2,500 blue bin collections were missed on January 5.

Additional recycling bags were also left piling up on the streets due to confusion over who was collecting them, a council meeting heard.

Last month, the Telegraph asked Coventry City Council if agency staff failed to turn up over Christmas.

A council spokesperson did not answer the question directly, but admitted that they had “some issues with agency staff ”.

However, a council meeting has now heard that agency staff failed to turn up to work on January 5, leading to the problems.

Coventry City Council shut down over Christmas last year, with their regular waste collection team “not contractually obliged to work”.

Only a “minimal amount” of the council’s staff volunteered to work, Sarah Elliott, head of fleet and waste management said.

That meant the authority had to rely on agency staff, but many did not turn up to work on January 5, leading to the Christmas chaos.

Yet despite the issues, she told a communities and neighbourhoods scrutiny board on Wednesday a “similar process” will operate to use agency staff this year.

Cllr Robert Thay said: “I cannot believe you are going to do the same thing again this year.

“What is different? What agency staff are not going to turn up this time?

“The agency staff who didn’t turn up we should not be using again.

“The collections were terrible. Communication was abysmal. I didn’t even find out that the bins hadn’t been collected until someone phoned me up at six o’clock on Saturday night.