Ill discipline blamed for failing city bins service
Council report says same streets missed by unreliable crews as action plan urged
ASCATHING internal report into Birmingham’s bins service has exposed a culture which allows ‘‘unreliable’’ crews to regularly miss whole streets and “a legacy of poor labour relations and workplace discipline”.
The damning report by Labour councillors involved checking what was actually happening on the ground with what was reported back by crews. The review has now recommended a major overhaul and more funding.
The report, seen by the Post, said: “A long catalogue of problems have left us with an eight-year legacy of unreliable service that has seriously damaged Labour’s reputation for providing an efficient, basic bin service.”
The group of councillors, chaired by Cllr Rob Pocock, say they found that some rounds are ‘dropped’ much more frequently than others, and that streets that are missed “are not random”.
On recycling, the situation is worse. Catch up crews who pick up missed collections are seen to throw the recycling and landfill waste in together.
Councillor Ian Ward, leader of Birmingham City Council, said when asked about the report: “I am clear that the standard of bin collections in this city has not been acceptable.”
BIRMINGHAM’S bins service is letting down residents, with ‘unreliable’ crews regularly missing out whole streets, according to the findings of a probe by councillors.
A failure to ‘log complaints and missed collections properly, poor recycling and workplace discipline issues’ also mean residents are ‘losing faith’ with the service, a report says.
The findings are in an internal report to the Labour leadership from a working group of 10 Labour councillors. Some of their work involved checking what was happening ‘on the ground’ with what was reported back by crews.
The review, carried out over the summer and dated October 24, highlighted multiple problems with the service and recommends an overhaul and more funding.
Critically, they found that “a legacy of poor labour relations and workplace discipline was a root cause of the longstanding problems”.
The report, intended for internal use but seen by the Post, said: “A long catalogue of problems have left us with an eight-year legacy of unreliable service that has seriously damaged Labour’s reputation for providing an efficient basic bin service.”
The review was ordered by the council’s Labour leader Ian Ward after bins issues were raised repeatedly by residents during campaigning for the May local elections.
Problems highlighted by the working group in their report - called Better Basic Services - include:
Shortage of qualified HGV drivers and back-up, meaning sometimes whole rounds are dropped because of the absence of one member of staff.
■ Over-reliance on temporary agency crews unfamiliar with the layout, leading to missed streets and locations.
■ Late arrival of staff at the depots means rounds are not being completed.
■ Continued use of outdated paper lists of assisted collection addresses, not even arranged in route order meaning some are easily missed.
The group of councillors, chaired by Cllr Rob Pocock, said they found that some rounds are ‘dropped’ much more frequently than others, and streets that are missed “are not random”.
They say: “There is a pattern where certain streets are repeatedly missed while others close by are usually fine.
“A probable cause of this is specific round crews being unreliable, disproportionally
affected by absence, labour relations etc, causing those specific rounds to be more often missed than others.”
They also found that reports given to the depot by crews about missed streets and bins not left out are ‘not always reliable’, leaving supervisors unable to react.
Evidence of this was flushed out by councillors who compared what was happening ‘on the ground’ with what is reported by crews.
Councillors added: “Residents are losing faith in lodging complaints as nothing improves.”
On recycling, the situation is worse. ‘Catch up crews’ who pick up missed collections are seen to throw the recycling and landfill waste in together.
Council leader Ian War said: “I am clear that the standard of bin collections in this city has not been acceptable.
“We are bringing forward a number of significant changes to the way that the service operates which will help to improve the reliability of collections across the city.”