‘SIGNIFICANT’ improvements have been made to address months of complaints over Barnsley’s bin collection backlog - although some councillors have hit out at the claim.
Month-on-month positive steps have been recorded by the council since January’s heavy snowfall and subsequent icy patch which impacted collections.
According to Coun James Higginbottom, cabinet spokesperson for environment and highways, said daily challenges have been encountered - but revealed the majority of residents’ bins are being collected on their usual days.
He added: “Collections made as scheduled have been improving steadily each month from January, when the service was significantly disrupted, initially by snow and prolonged icy conditions.
“I’m pleased to confirm that in May, 94 per cent of all collections were collected on their scheduled date.”
However, Couns Philip Wright and Steve Bullcock, who represent the Kingstone ward, said problems remain - as do residents’ reports of decaying, uncollected waste.
In a joint statement, they added: “These abandoned dustbins are still littering our communities.
“There’s food waste decaying and festering inside the dustbins on our street corners and backings - the offending dustbins have been condemned or deemed not safe to collect by conventional methods.
“Rats feasting on the contents of abandoned bins and then running near you is not a pleasant experience.”
Council bosses have recently agreed to scrap the £31 charge for replacing recycling bins after signing off on a £2.3m investment into modernising waste services.
A total of £1.8m will be used to bring in additional resources to ensure that collections are consistent which will support the council’s waste safety and quality programme.
A further £500,000 was also signed off which will allow residents to request new or replacement blue and brown bins which currently cost £31 for free.
A move to scrap crews’ old-fashioned paper-based reporting system - in favour of in-cab technology - is also being touted as a step in the right direction for missed or damaged bins.
Coun Higginbottom added: “Our waste collection crews report bins that remain tagged and unemptied.
“Our team cross-check these reports with bin orders and follow up with a letter to customer to make them aware of the need to order a new bin to facilitate waste collections.
“Residents have a responsibility to ensure that their household waste is disposed of legally and safely.
“With regard to abandoned bins, where reported, these are scheduled for lifting by our Neighbourhood Services teams.
“With a workforce of circa 120 staff across 35 collection crews deployed daily, it will take a couple of months for the whole service to get fully up and running with the new technology.
“This is being rolled out in a phased format so that crews can get used to it and any technical hitches that come with implementing such a large scale technological change can be ironed out before this was unleashed on the wider workforce.
“This will make a huge difference to the quality of service residents receive, it will provide real-time collection data, route optimisation and will give our crews the data on assisted collections, road closures, reporting issues around narrow access, to hopefully reduce those challenges inevitably faced as an operational service and improve the
service that residents receive.”
