Ouseburn Fuming As Council Botches Bin Day
Residents of many parts of Heaton, Shieldfield and Battlefield have been left fuming, after the Council failed to collect their bins on July 10th because of a public sector strike. The 'alternate weekly collection' system means that the bins will not now be collected until July 24, four weeks after the previous collection."
Ouseburn Ward Councillor Gareth Kane said: "This is completely unacceptable in the middle of summer, when refuse will soon be stinking and attracting vermin. Despite having plenty of notice of the strike, the Council have failed to put in place any alternative, and are simply telling residents to take their own uncollected refuse to their local 'tip'. Many people do not have cars, and those who do will not want bags full of smelly rubbish in them."
His colleague Cllr Stephen Psallidas added: "The Council should have let residents know well in advance of this issue, but instead only announced it via the media 48 hours beforehand, with no alert to ward councillors. As a result, our phones have been red hot with resident complaints, and there is little we can do to help."
Gareth concluded: "Even at this stage, the Council could make a big difference to the situation by collecting the 'green' (residual) waste bins this Thursday 17th July, instead of the normal 'blue' (recycling) bin collection which would be due. This would clear the dirtiest bin waste as soon as possible, reducing the length of time it spends rotting in front of peoples' houses. I am proposing this urgently to senior Council managers today."
Contact: Cllr Gareth Kane 07986 005382