Christmas bin collection details revealed

RESIDENTS SAID LAST YEAR’S CHAOTIC SERVICE LEFT STREETS ‘LIKE A REFUSE DUMP’

DETAILS of this year’s Christmas waste collections in Coventry have been revealed - with just one change from last year’s chaotic service.

Residents said their streets were left looking “like a refuse dump” last year after 2,500 bin collections were missed, sparking 250 complaints.

The problem was blamed on agency staff failing to turn up for work and only a “minimal amount” of existing staff - who are not contractually obliged to work over Christmas - volunteering.

Issues were also put down to it being the first year the council had used a new supplier for its agency staff.

This year additional temporary staff will be recruited from the same agency from early December to assist the busy Christmas period, but only one change has been made to the collection dates.

The only change from last year sees collections on New Year’s Day scrapped with bins collected on Monday, December 30 instead.

Head of fleet and waste management Sarah Elliott said in a council report: “As Monday is a non-working day for domestic waste employees,’ collections on this day will be covered by volunteers from within the workforce and temporary agency staff.

“By collecting on Monday 30th December any problems experienced throughout the week can be addressed on Saturday 4th January, minimising disruption to residents.”

Garden waste collections will be suspended from Friday, December 13 and resume on Tuesday, January 14, 2020.

All collections will be suspended week commencing December 23, 2019.

All residents will receive a collection of the green lidded bin the week before and the week after Christmas.

Sacks for additional recycling will be delivered to all households early December and collected week commencing December 30 and January 6 alongside scheduled collections.

The additional recycling bags were left piling up on streets last year due to confusion over who was collecting them.

A council meeting earlier in February blasted last year’s service as “terrible” but at the time Ms Elliott said she believed this was a “blip year” which the council will “look at ... and learn from”.

She added in a report this week: “Additional temporary staff will be recruited from early December to assist across the period.

“Any issues with collections will be communicated across social media and on the councils website.”

A full discussion on Christmas waste collections will be carried out at a communities and neighbourhoods scrutiny board on Thursday.