A NUMBER of bin lorries have broken down in recent weeks and a councillor said it would be ‘immensely foolish’ to say there would be no delays in the winter months.
At last week’s full council meeting, Coun James Higginbottom, cabinet spokesperson for environment and highways, was quizzed on the current and upcoming situation with refuse collections in the town.
It was revealed that a breakdown of a 12-tonne lorry had caused disruption in recent weeks - but Coun Higginbottom says the collection team are now working to get back on track.
He said: “Each week, our waste service collects in the region of 115,000 bins.
“As with any frontline operational service, that inevitably poses challenges when it comes to vehicles breaking down which then subsequently impacts on service delivery.
“Refuse collection vehicles (RCVs) operate under very demanding conditions - with the combination of the start stop nature of their workload, the hydraulic systems for the lifts and the compaction of waste and the tonnes of waste they transport daily.
“The waste fleet operates with a contingency of circa 20 per cent to cover the servicing and maintenance of the vehicles, but given the highly specialised nature of the vehicles in question, this can pose supply
chain challenges to procure replacements at short notice.
“In recent weeks, breakdowns on our 12-tonne RCVs have caused a significant impact on the ability to collect bins on narrow access and rural rounds which require the use of smaller RCVs for safety.
“I apologise to residents that have been affected by the disruption, but I will offer my assurances that we are catching the backlog up as quickly as possible.
“I am pleased to confirm that a replacement RCV at 7.5 tonnes has been procured and is operational and the two 12-tonne RCVs are back on the road and that gives us a robust plan now in place to recover missed bins on a priority basis.”
Coun Will Fielding, who represents the Dodworth ward, asked Coun Higginbottom if he thought that the collections this winter - after hundreds of thousands were missed earlier this year - would continue without any delays.
Coun Higginbottom said: “It would be immensely foolish of me to make such a broad and sweeping commitment - and I have no intention of doing so.
“The priority of the waste service is always to provide a safe and reliable collection service for our staff and residents.
“However, there is always the risk that severe weather conditions - such as we experienced in January and which were the most severe and prolonged in over a decade - will have an impact on service continuity and lead to unavoidable delays to collections.
“However, I can assure Coun Fielding that should severe weather affect services, every effort will be made to recover missed bins as quickly as possible.”
Coun Fielding said: “Following last year's chaos, which started before the weather that Labour keeps mentioning, it is essential that the council ensures collections are performed as soon as possible.
“The countless bins on the streets led to rats feasting on waste, as well as the bins blocking off the pavements to disabled residents, both things that people in Barnsley should never have to deal with."
