BLAME IT ON THE BIN MEN

Council bosses say waste collection chaos was ‘down to staff’

Management in Stirling Council have suggested that recent bins chaos has been partly down to workers undermining the introduction of the new collection system.

The comments, while played down at a public meeting of the council’s finance committee last Thursday, were not denied.

Discussion was sparked when SNP councillor Ian Muirhead said one written response he had received from a member of the management team in recent weeks had suggested part of the problem with the the implementation of the new waste strategy was “staff not cooperating with the new way of working”, although he did not elaborate on how staff were supposedly failing to do so.

Council depute leader and finance spokesesperson Councillor Neil Benny said: “The context of that particular comment is that it was one sentence within the context of an email, which is quite important to note.”

And senior management for the service said: “The comment was correct at that point in time and we would all recognise that as part of the ebb and flow of any new service there’s a degree of uncertainty and kickback.

“On Tuesday, for the first time, all routes were completed. The workforce have settled down to a degree and the system works, and it’s possible to make it work. Context is important. There is a large workforce within Waste Services and maybe many different opinions on the methods.”

SNP councillor Gerry McLaughlan said: “My experience of the staff is fantastic and I would like to pass on my thanks to them. I accept there’s been problems.

“We will be questioning some of the timeline planning but as far as implementing it I fully accept that staff are working to keep up.”

Council officials told the meeting Waste Services was currently projecting an overspend of £91,000 largely from timing issues leading to one-off costs to implement the new waste operation, including buyout of staff terms and conditions, marketing and communications and occupational change costs.

The savings from the new system were expected to be around £685,000, although it could be around £91,000 short of that figure this year over the entire waste budget.

They added: “As we go through the implementation, we have to be quite agile in our response. If the rollout goes well and things bed down quickly a number of the temporary staff will be released much more quickly.

“We have been able to release some people but there’s asbsolute clarity in the cost of the final model once it’s fully implemented. The issue of clarity does not relate to the final system but the period of rollout.”

Commenting after the meeting, Stirling SNP environment spokesperson Councillor Jim Thomson said: “People across Stirling are sick of the Tory/Labour Administration’s continuing failure over the rollout of new bins. This continues to be the most complained about issue that constituents have contacted me over and to find that now the service is running at a massive overspend is frankly insulting.”

Councillor McLaughlan said: “If this absurd overspend had come about to ensure the smooth transition from the old bin system to the new one, the Tory/Labour coalition’s fiscal incompetence would almost be forgivable, but it hasn’t.

“It is astonishing that we are still in the situation where nobody knows how much this new system is actually going to cost the Stirling taxpayer.”

It was just one sentence in an email, which is very important to note