WODC Cabinet member statement on the new rubbish collections

Sat 4 Nov 2017, 09:49 (last edited on Sat 4 Nov 2017, 10:01)

There are a large number of people in Charlbury, Finstock and Fawler who have had problems with the new rubbish collection service and Andy and I have spent a large amount of our time these past few weeks trying to get people's bins emptied and the unwanted blue bins collected - with mixed success. At the WODC council meeting last week, the Cabinet member, Carol Reynolds, told us she was not going to make a public statement at this stage, which I questioned. However, she sent the following out to councillors yesterday and I am posting it here so people are aware of what is happening, as I think that is only right. The council really has no excuse for this shambolic start. The decision to switch provider was made a couple of years ago. Ubico, the new contractor, is owned by WODC along with some Gloucestershire councils. Carol Reynolds says they are putting considerable pressure on them to sort the problems out, but how difficult can that be when you own the company?? I wonder if a privately owned company would have been allowed to get away with such gross inefficiency? Only asking.....

Carol Reynolds' statement:
Further to my previous email I thought I would give you an update on progress with the waste collections.

As you are aware the round changes have in some cases resulted in a loss of local knowledge and this has created significant issues with large numbers of missed collections. With 47,000 households in a predominantly rural area, it is a real challenge to then catch up on those missed collections and the contractor was overwhelmed due to the scale of this problem In normal circumstances crews catch up on missed collections as part of the next days rounds but in this case the number of misses coupled with the fact we were trying to clear waste from households who had presented on the wrong day, meant dedicated crews had to be allocated to missed collections. Whilst significant progress has been made and missed collections are reducing we are still experiencing issues with more remote properties or those on assisted or narrow access collections who have gone many weeks without a collection. As a different crew is collecting missed collections the regular crews have not necessarily been back to those 'missed' properties and identified their locations and have then missed them again. Additional work has therefore been carried out to ensure these locations are clearly identified and can be found by the crews of each of the waste collection services.

We have had particular issues with some assisted (back door) collections, communal collections and those which require a smaller vehicle due to restricted access. Despite efforts to plan for and check data to ensure the new contractor was aware of any issues, there has been an a loss in local property specific knowledge which has meant some customers have suffered delays but these are being identified and the council has been raising cases with the contractor to ensure these issues are resolved. Ubico are utilising existing Ubico staff from the Station lane depot and Cheltenham Head Office, including senior managers, who will provide an increased level of supervision ��" the Council will not be recharged for this resource.

The issues we have experienced do not affect everyone but do have a big impact on those who have suffered missed collections. The following data for collections from 02 Oct 2017 until 31 Oct 2017 illustrate the numbers involved: (The table doesn't translate when posted here, but essentially about 10% of households have not had their rubbish collected, in many cases for a month)

Following delivery of the new recycling vehicles design work was carried out to enable the retrofit of cages beneath the vehicles for the collection of ancillary recycling materials such as textiles, batteries, cooking oil and small electrical items. These cages have now been ordered and should be fitted in December. In the meantime these materials are collected on the same day as the mixed recycling and separated glass but using a separate vehicle so the collection is usually later in the day.

Blue lidded bins were delivered to every household, between July ��" September, by a private company contracted in to provide that service. They experienced the same problems our Collection Crews have had in finding some properties and therefore a number of properties were missed however we asked the public to contact us in early September if they had not received their bin. We then arranged delivery of a bin to them with the bin delivery contractor. The bin delivery contractor provided us with a list of properties which they were unable to locate to make bin deliveries. However we have received further requests for blue lidded bins in October and Ubico have continued to deliver them when requested. There has also been a large number of requests for new and replacement containers for other waste materials as the service changes have created interest in the service generally.

Some larger families have requested additional bins for recycling. In the short term these households can continue to use their black boxes to supplement the blue lidded bin. Anyone who had already disposed of their excess black boxes is being provided with disposable plastic sacks as a temporary measure for their excess recycling. In the new year a larger 360L bin will be available for households that produce a lot of recycling and they will be able to swap their existing 240L bin for a new 360L one.

There were some issues with the online form for reporting missed collections so this was removed until a new version could be developed and tested to ensure all the customers information would transfer to the software system. It is hoped this will be up and running again in the next couple of weeks.

We are taking this matter very seriously and we are working with the contractor, to raise the problems that residents are experiencing and request that corrective action is taken both in terms of collecting missed waste and ensuring further misses don't occur. We are placing considerable pressure on the contractor to resolve these issues, with daily progress updates between senior management, to ensure tangible improvements are being made, as we are not happy with the service level being delivered and are very aware that is causing significant inconvenience to residents.

If you receive any complaints from residents about repeat missed collections or collections that have been reported and not collected within two working days then please contact Claire Locke who will take up these issues with the contractor. If residents contact you about missed collections which have recently occurred they should be encouraged to report them via customer services either by telephone or email and they will be collected. This enables Claire and the team to concentrate on misses where there are real problems to resolve.