Highways Stupidity

The whole Park School site should have been a showcase development. After all , it doesn’t get any easier than this – it was a flat, nearly empty site owned by the County Council . Everything should have been designed properly.

But now we find that the housing has been built so that the District Council’s recycling vehicle can’t get round there. One council officer has written to a resident as follows:

One of my colleagues has been to the whole of the Coppice Gate area with the smallest recycling vehicle and unfortunately it was unable to manoeuvre all of the bends as it’s turning circle is much wider than our refuse vehicle. It could make some of the bends that I am sure the delivery vehicles make but this would mean going up onto the kerb and would eventually result in damage to the pavements or create torn up grass verges.

This decision was jointly taken with the Council and the Contractor and was by no means taken lightly. We would ideally love to have 100% of our properties on a recycling scheme, but until such time that we purchase a new vehicle or complete the new waste contract in March 2008 we are unable to offer a kerbside collection for approx 1% of our properties.

We are currently working with the new leisure centre to offer a bring bank recycling system here so that you can take your glass, paper, cans and textiles to a central bring bank to be recycled.

I am sorry I am currently unable to offer more in the way of a kerbside collection scheme but do hope this may change in the near future.

Why can’t the County Council and the District Council work together so that new estate roads are designed properly?