A LOCAL councillor has said Barnsley Council are ‘letting residents down’ after they announced they have suspended blue bin collections - and he’s called on them to scrap the ‘silly’ decision.
It was revealed on Wednesday that due to a number of issues - including bank holidays and workers turning down voluntary overtime - that the blue cardboard bins would not be collected until the next scheduled date.
It means that many residents across the town will be waiting a month to have their bins - full of Christmas cardboard - collected.
It follows on from last year’s bin chaos when there were more than 330,000 late collections in the first month of the year.
At that time Coun Andy Wray, who represents the Rockingham ward, had called on council officers to resign - and he says the issues this year prove he was right to do so.
He told the Chronicle: “This time last year the bin collections got silly and the crews were weeks behind.
“Last year I asked two people to resign and I got put in disciplinary because of that.
“But this just proves that I was right to do so.”
The council has said residents with full blue bins can rip large boxes into smaller pieces to create more space, and to take busy cardboard to household waste recycling centres across the town.
They say any cardboard left at the side of bins will not be collected.
Coun Wray said that the council is letting residents all over the borough - not just in his ward - down and urged them to put a stop to the ‘silly’ decision of not letting residents put excess waste next to their bins.
He added: “I don’t agree with what the council has said about not taking any side waste.
“I’ve written to the powers that be to drop that silly decision.
“It’s going to be an ongoing problem.
“Why not outsource the bin collections to another company to catch up, even if it’s just for a week or two.
“They’re letting people down.
“I’m a driving instructor and I go across town and it’s not just Rockingham ward where there’s bins everywhere - it’s all over the borough.
“How many excuses have they come up with now?”
Coun Wray says another issue is posting the statement on social media, meaning many elderly locals may still be unaware.
He said: “Not everybody is on social media.
“So some people will still be leaving their blue bins out.
“They’re quick at getting council tax letters out to residents so why can’t they do that but send letters about the bins?
“There’s ways around the problem.”
Following the announcement of the suspended collections, many residents raised the question of a council tax rebate.
But the council have confirmed that is not going to happen.
A spokesperson said: “Council tax is not a direct payment for waste collection.
“Council tax contributes towards 20 per cent of the total amount we spend delivering services that you need.
“Without it, essential services including social care, libraries, maintaining roads, public health services and housing would not be adequately funded to keep running.
“This means that the most vulnerable people would be affected.”
They have also apologised for the issue and explained their decision in the statement.
“This year, the dates on which bank holidays fell over Christmas meant that three working days were lost where bins would ordinarily have been emptied,” they added.
“All waste collection staff were offered voluntary overtime, unfortunately this year we haven’t had enough staff volunteer, so we’ve focused on collecting grey and brown bins first to make sure food waste and food/drink packaging is dealt with.
“We know this is frustrating and we’re sorry for the disruption.
“Thank you for your understanding and patience.
“Please don’t call our contact centre about the disruptions as they’re unable to give any more information.”
