XMAS BIN PROBLEMS FOR SECOND YEAR IN ROW

ANOTHER problematic Christmas waste collection service in Coventry has been blamed on agency staff who “didn’t turn up”.

Residents vented their anger when the council announced a few days after Christmas that some bin collections in the city would - for the second year in a row - be missed.

It was a case of history repeating itself as the authority revealed it had experienced similar problems with booked agency staff not showing up for work this year as over Christmas 2018.

Councillors had even warned last January that the same thing would happen again after head of waste Sarah Elliott told them they were going to use a “similar process” in 2019.

In the aftermath of the latest Christmas collection, the councillor in charge of the authority’s spending said the council couldn’t “attract enough from the pool of workers set up to come in and work”.

Speaking at a finance and corporate services scrutiny board on January 15, Cllr John Mutton said: “It wasn’t brilliant over the Christmas and New Year period, partly because we brought agency staff in and couldn’t attract enough from the pool of workers set up to come in and work over Christmas and New Year.

“There was agency workers who then sometimes didn’t turn up.”

Other issues included some residents claiming they have been waiting five weeks to have their recycling bins collected.

Councillors have also reported problems over the delivery of bin calendars and additional clear bags for recycling - with many residents not getting them at all.

Cllr Glenn Williams raised the issue at full council on January 14, where it was revealed the authority paid £48,000 to an external company for the delivery of the bags and calendars alone, despite many reporting they hadn’t received them.

After the meeting, he said the council had received “so many complaints”.

He added: “The calendars and clear bags are meant to be sent out to every house...£48,000 to provide someone to deliver them when they did not do a good job.” Cllr Pat Hetherton, the cabinet member responsible for bin collections, admitted the service was not up to scratch.

She told him: “We are having a review of what we have done this year. We learn every year.

“We know it wasn’t satisfactory by the number of emails we received, so certainly we will be bringing something forward in the future.”

Cllr Julia Lepoidevin also said the problems were repeated in her ward of Woodlands.

She said: “Residents have been confused about the information coming forward.

“I have asked who we use to get the deliveries of calendars and bags and it is both outsourced. If they are not doing a job then what is going on?

“We pay a lot of council tax and rubbish is one of the basics we have got to get right.” The Christmas waste collection will be debated at a council meeting on January 24.