Council quiet on bin row

KIRKLEES Council is still refusing to reveal why bin collection workers walked out.

The Examiner understands that between five and 10 workers refused to finish their shift one day last week, leaving 4,000 bins unemptied.

Councillors were hoping for an explanation at full council on Wednesday night but the meeting ended before it could be answered.

One councillor has told the Examiner the Labour cabinet deliberately “filibustered” the question – dragging out other agenda items so time ran out.

Council procedures mean meetings have to end on time so items later on an agenda are often not dealt with.

Yesterday, the cabinet member responsible, Clr Musarrat Khan, revealed that an investigation was still under way and said there would be no update on what happened until it was completed.

Neither of the major unions at the council – Unite nor Unison – has been able to confirm if it is involved.

Clr Khan said: “During the week commencing November 6 the service failed to collect a number of bins.

“The service collects approximately 50,000 bins per day so whilst the number missed was small, the impact on individual residents was not.

“This is not acceptable and we would like to apologise for the poor service the residents have received.

“I would also like to thank the staff members who continued their work as normal.

“The disruption to service occurred because a small number of staff did not complete their day’s work and so caused disruption to the service and to residents. “This meant a number of grey bins were missed in the Holme Valley area.

“The staff involved are being dealt with through our own internal processes, which at this moment in time I cannot comment on further.

“We will continue to work towards delivering a high standard of service delivery.”

She added: “I am pleased to say that all of the bins missed due to the disruption have now been collected.”