Bins disruption to go on for months
COLLECTIONS SUSPENDED AS SERCO GETS HUGE CASH TOP-UP
FOOD waste and excess recycling in the Derbyshire Dales will continue to be suspended, while garden waste collections will restart at the end of the month.
In what has been a calamitous few months for bin collections in the Derbyshire Dales, residents are set for months more of continued cutbacks to their services – paid for through their council tax.
In July, the Conservative controlled district council voted to axe garden waste collections for a month – until the end of August.
They also voted to give the council’s bin contractor, private firm Serco, hundreds of thousands of pounds extra – on top of a multi-million-pound annual contract fee – to pay its drivers more money.
Officials have now announced that while the suspension of garden waste will end on Tuesday, other measures will continue.
Excess recycling – usually put in blue-lidded bins, blue boxes or blue bags – will not be collected from August 31 for three months. This means recycling which cannot fit into the blue recycling container – for glass, cans, cardboard, paper and plastic – will not be collected.
Waste must fit inside the bin with the lid closed, with the insert inside the bin. The inserts, used to separate waste, will not be collected if they are left next to the bin.
Residents who have a sack collection must contain all recycling within the blue box and two blue bags. Paper and cardboard must be kept separate from other materials.
Garden waste collections is restarting for residents who have paid £50 to subscribe. Again, waste left next to the green bins will not be collected.
Separate food waste collections will continue to be suspended, the district council says, though they did not confirm when they will restart.
Residents are asked to continue to put their food waste in their grey bin or black sack.
The measures represented an aim to salvage what the council had declared was an “emergency” situation regarding bin collections, which had involved asking and failing to secure the help of the Army and fire service.
Thousands of pickups were missed as a result of a combination of reasons, which continue to impact services. This includes the impact of workers leaving the UK due to Brexit, the level of pay for bin collection staff, lockdown restricting driver training and employees having to self-isolate due to catching Covid-19 or being a close contact.
District councillors from opposition parties had lobbied in the July meeting not to give Serco, which has made profits of £120 million during the pandemic, any more cash.
Serco had called the contract “not profitable” and confirmed it paid staff £10.82 an hour, with the council agreeing to pay half of the funds for a pay rise, costing between £28,856 and £150,848 for a pay hike for Serco staff over the next eight months.
The decision came down to a deciding vote from the Conservative chair of the council, Ashbourne councillor Sue Bull.
Councillors agreed to give a £15 discount next year to residents who had paid for garden waste collections this year, to make up for the service being disrupted.
A total of 18,300 Dales residents pay for garden waste collections.
Councillors also voted to waive financial penalties for Serco for each bin missed, along with other key targets to monitor its performance.