Ward Question – 17^th December 2009

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Under Standing Order 14, Councillor Mrs. E.M. Bell asked the following question:

“Residents in my Ward are concerned at the announcement in the latest Borough Bulletin that the Friday recycling collection which falls on 25th December has not been rescheduled but has been dropped altogether.

Following the recycling collection on 11th December residents will not receive the recycling service again until 9th January.

Other recycling collection days seem to have been accommodated with just a one day delay, whilst the residents in Lower Sunbury have a 15 day delay. The residents of Lower Sunbury are highly motivated to recycle and of course the Christmas season produces more recyclable waste than normal. All residents regard waste collection as a basic service which they have paid for in their council tax.

I understand from the Depot that leaflets and sacks will be delivered to residents in Lower Sunbury on Friday 11th December for them to collect their extra 15 days of recyclables in. Although this is some relief, it is going to create a huge problem for many residents especially those without storage. If, as seems likely, sacks of recyclables are kept on property frontages during this extended 15 day period, it will be a complete eyesore.

Can you please explain why the residents of Lower Sunbury are being given this substantially reduced service?”

Councillor G.E. Forsbrey responded as follows:

“Before the decision was taken to cancel this collection we looked at a number of different options. This service will also affect not just the residents of Lower Sunbury, but also residents of Shepperton and Ashford Common.

The first option was a repeat of a previous year when we attempted to collect one day earlier during the week before Christmas to avoid excessive delays post Christmas. Unfortunately this proved to be very unsuccessful with residents as the majority forgot to place their bins out on the rescheduled days.

The second option (which would have enabled the recycling for the Friday to be collected on 29 December) would have pushed all rubbish collections further forward and the return to schedules would have then moved forward for a further week, resulting in confusion for the majority of residents until 18 January.

I hope all Councillors will agree with me that the sooner “normal service“ is resumed the better it is for everybody.

By rescheduling the collection we have enabled all of the more difficult rubbish waste, which residents do not wish to keep hold of, to be removed much quicker. In addition to this, all recycling/rubbish collections will return to normal collection days by Monday 11 January 2010, thereby avoiding any more confusion than necessary for residents, particularly the elderly residents who find this type of change more difficult to cope with.

The Streetscene staff does try to avoid disruption to this type of service wherever possible, which is why there is normally a collection on Bank Holidays throughout the year apart from Xmas. Staff are not required to work on Bank Holidays or Saturdays but agree to do so to keep the service running as smoothly as possible.

The recycling "bring sites" will also be monitored and emptied regularly over the Christmas and New Year period to ensure that residents who do not wish to, or cannot store their recyclables at home, have somewhere to dispose of them.”