These are stories we have heard in the last two or three days. It’s clear that a lot of things still need to be sorted out.
We fully support recycling and hope it will be a great success. But we can’t help thinking that if the Lib Dems were running the council, the Tories would be all over the press ripping us to pieces over this….
Incidentally, Chris was told today that the minutes of last weeks council meeting – which dealt with recycling and the big increases in allowances – won’t be public until Thursday week….
The man who ‘flagged down’ a passing refuse lorry like you would a taxi…
A serious complaint from 4 houses in London Road, Rayleigh. Not only have they had no literature but they have had no collection for the last 3 weeks.
Because their bins were smelling one of the residents begged the refuse lorry in Hatfield Road to collect some of their bins. He said they were not on his round but he would collect as a favour. We believe that before the new recycling they were always part of the Hatfield Road collection. They now seemed to have disappeared of the lists altogether.
To make matters worse one gentleman rang RDC but he says they seem unable to address the problem, so in desperation he rung his councillor.
Although one or two bins were collected as a favour, we are told there are others that have not been emptied since the new system .
The man who was away when the scheme started:
A resident in Torquay Close, Rayleigh was away on Thursday 17th July , which isn’t surprising as July is a popular time to be away! This was just before before the new scheme started. As a result his bin wasn’t emptied of general rubbish. It still hasn’t been relabelled to a recyclable bin- he still has a lot of recyclable waste which he can’t get rid of because this bin is still full.
Although the council staff have sounded helpful on the phone, and promised to have the grey bin emptied by yesterday, it didn’t happen. The bin has now waited to be emptied for nearly 3 weeks. The resident feels he may have to transfer this rubbish to the new purple one to actually get it collected. This he doesn’t want to do.
Confusion in Rochford:
One lady and her neighbours in Rochford have not yet received an information pack. They also have been totally confused by the information they have gathered by enquiring concerning their change of collection day as below.
Collection day used to be FRIDAY.
In week one by telephoning the help line they were told it would change to THURSDAY.
A neighbour who rang or called in to the council offices was told it would be MONDAY.
BUT the bins were collected on the SATURDAY!In week two they put their bins out Monday (as per Council Offices) NOT collected
Put them out again on Tuesday (just in case) NOT collected
Bins were collected on WEDNESDAY not a day mentioned so far?
They are now putting them out every day just in case!And by the way they never receive Rochford District Matters either so haven’t had any info that way.
The flats that have been waiting 14 weeks for a bin:
A resident in Housing Association flats in Rayleigh has been waiting for 14 weeks for a bin. This block used to have 4 bins but one went missing and since then despite calling the Housing Association, the bin contractors (old and new) and the Council no action has been forthcoming. Last week the remaining three bins had 11 bags that could not fit in and were piled up by the bins. Three of them were then left by the bin contractors.
Since then they have been collected but the resident says, reasonably, that all they need is an extra bin and the problems would cease.
She also requested a green bin so that she could recycle her own garden waste but was told to put it with the rest of the rubbish. She wants to recycle but feels she is not being encouraged to do so.
My favourite story so far is from my neighbour who tells me on collection day she put out her composting bin with no more than a few onion and garlic scraps. The collection crew didn’t take her bin, when she asked why she was told, “it wasn’t enough”. The scraps had to wait another week making the bin smelly in the hot weather. The moral, make sure you fill your bin with at much as possible…if you have it!
Well my non recycling bin has just been emptied and left right up the road on a very narrow pavement, even though they took it to empty from a driveway. Whats the point though of saying anything, would probably be left even further away then.