Farewell to weekly main bin collections

Weekly general waste collections are set to be axed, in favour of a fortnightly collection, under new draft budget proposals. This is expected to save £175,000 in 2021/2022.

Weekly recycling and food waste bin collections will continue as usual.

Nonetheless the proposal has evoked the ire of those who suffered missed bins when the borough only recently switched back to weekly collections.

It has brought back worries over queues at the dump, pest problems, odours, rubbish on the streets and increased flytipping – which all increased during the recent collection failures.

But some residents support the move, as they would see a greater commitment to recycling across the borough.

Responding to residents on social media,

Councillor Ross McWilliams (Con, Cox

Green) told residents that recycling rates have been ‘increasing dramatically' during COVID-19, hence there may be less need for weekly black bin collections.

Amjad Masri of Crown Lane is one of the residents whose bins were missed repeatedly and he is not happy about the changes.

“Even as a weekly collection, it's bad," he said. “I can't imagine how it's going to be as a fortnightly collection.

“It's unbelievable. They're wasting money on many stupid things in my opinion - and on the most important things, they want to make cuts.”

Carole Bowman of Spinners Walk has also had problems with Serco missing collections and is concerned that going fortnightly might lead to even worse problems. “Can you imagine if they forget our bins for a month?” she said. “It’s disgraceful.”