War of words over council bin uplifts
A politician has defended Renfrewshire Council officers over bin uplifts in the local authority.
Councillor Jacqueline Cameron claimed the opposition leader’s comments on the topic were “utterly demoralising” for staff who have worked on the waste service change since the end of last year.
A progress report on the change said of the 141,500 bins collected each week, the council’s “right first time” collection rate has returned to a performance level of picking up 99.8 per cent.
Councillor Eddie Devine, leader of the Labour group, cast doubt on the figure at the Infrastructure, Land and Environment Policy Board and called it “unbelievable”.
He said: “To describe teething problems as a small percentage of households is unbelievable. Every councillor was inundated with complaints about bins not getting lifted and we still are.
“99.8 per cent is not happening. That is unbelievable.”
However, Councillor Cameron hit back and jumped to the defence of council staff.
She said: “I think Councillor Devine’s comments must be utterly demoralising for the council officers who have worked so hard on this.
“It’s a huge change.
“We get a skewed picture of things because people only contact us when things are going wrong.
“I want to thank the officers for all they’re doing with this change.”
Tory Councillor Neill Graham weighed in on the debate and said: “I have been inundated with complaints as well but most of them, about 90 per cent, are dealt with in five days.
“I don’t think we should have implemented it when we did, at Christmas time, when there’s a lot more waste.”