Refuse collection and Council Logic
Discussion
Terrible rant (No swearing!) But i had an interesting bit of logic from the Environmental Services section of the council today and thought i'd put it to the masses to make sure i'm not being stupid and/or unreasonable.
Our bins were not emptied this week (Nothing new from our council, There's always atleast one bin on the street left uncollected because the lid was slightly up, Or it was too far from the collection point, Or there was an R in the month) - We rang up to re-arrange a collection, They refused.. Their reasoning being:
The bins were left full as we have two bins for one property. They have changed policy and will now only remove refuse if the property has one bin allocated to it.
I'd understand their point (That we don't need two bins for a terraced house) But We did not request an extra bin, It was here when we moved in (4 years ago) .. It's rarely used and most weeks not even put out - If they'd told us they didn't want us to have it We would happily have left it empty and let them collect it. This week it had just one bin bag in it (Although it now does have more, As a helpful neighbour took it being out still as an excuse to fill it with their bin bags which the council also decided not to take!) At no point did they bother to tell us this would be an issue, Not even a note when they last collected both bins and saw we had two to tell us policy was changing!
Their stance is they can't empty either bin until we have only one bin for the property. They won't collect the extra bin until it's empty. We'll need to empty the bin ourselves (They won't empty it as we have two bins for the property). They won't send anyone out to remove any refuse from the house until the next collection date - At which point we'll have a full months worth of rubbish.
When i asked what they expect us to do with the next two weeks worth of rubbish i was informed "That isn't our problem" (It's not as if they are the Environmental Services department who are Paid to remove household refuse or anything) "You'll need to take it to the local tip yourself"
Ordinarily i would do just that (And have done when they've been too lazy to do their job previously) But my car is off the road for the next two weeks and the local tip is a 2 mile walk away and will require multiple trips just to get rid of the last two weeks rubbish - Let alone the next two weeks! I'm going in for a heart op imminently and can barely walk up a flight of stairs without getting out of breath i'll struggle somewhat making multiple trips carrying 50Litre bin bags!.
The only lifts i can get from friends/family are at the weekend as the tip will be closed when we have finished work during the week - So it still results in a weeks worth of rubbish building up before we can get rid.
No taxi driver is going to be willing to drive me to the tip with a couple of bags of two week old festering rubbish and nappies (Especially now it is covered in bin juices!)
I Pointed out my issues with getting to the tip so they advised us that we should leave it in our house until collection day, Then put it at the collection point. They will only remove 5 bags per household so we must only put out 5 at a time - If we put out more then 5 it will not be collected and we will be fined for fly tipping. If we leave the excess rubbish from the next two weeks in the alleyway between now and collection day we will be fined for fly-tipping. If we leave it in our yard we will be fined for creating an unsanitary environment for our neighbours (Not that it will fit, We have a total of 4 full size and 1 half size bin in a terraced yard when you include the recycling bins!).
So that's their official stance.
Attempting to dispose of rubbish in the correct manner = Bad Resident. No collection for you, Sit in the corner and think about what you've done.
Placing rubbish in the yard on top of bins Creates an unsanitary environment for my neighbours = Bad resident, Have a fine.
Allow my child to live and play in a house full of trash and bags full of used nappies for a week at a time = Perfectly fine.
There is a silver lining though, They offered to send me a free pack of bin bags
Our bins were not emptied this week (Nothing new from our council, There's always atleast one bin on the street left uncollected because the lid was slightly up, Or it was too far from the collection point, Or there was an R in the month) - We rang up to re-arrange a collection, They refused.. Their reasoning being:
The bins were left full as we have two bins for one property. They have changed policy and will now only remove refuse if the property has one bin allocated to it.
I'd understand their point (That we don't need two bins for a terraced house) But We did not request an extra bin, It was here when we moved in (4 years ago) .. It's rarely used and most weeks not even put out - If they'd told us they didn't want us to have it We would happily have left it empty and let them collect it. This week it had just one bin bag in it (Although it now does have more, As a helpful neighbour took it being out still as an excuse to fill it with their bin bags which the council also decided not to take!) At no point did they bother to tell us this would be an issue, Not even a note when they last collected both bins and saw we had two to tell us policy was changing!
Their stance is they can't empty either bin until we have only one bin for the property. They won't collect the extra bin until it's empty. We'll need to empty the bin ourselves (They won't empty it as we have two bins for the property). They won't send anyone out to remove any refuse from the house until the next collection date - At which point we'll have a full months worth of rubbish.
When i asked what they expect us to do with the next two weeks worth of rubbish i was informed "That isn't our problem" (It's not as if they are the Environmental Services department who are Paid to remove household refuse or anything) "You'll need to take it to the local tip yourself"
Ordinarily i would do just that (And have done when they've been too lazy to do their job previously) But my car is off the road for the next two weeks and the local tip is a 2 mile walk away and will require multiple trips just to get rid of the last two weeks rubbish - Let alone the next two weeks! I'm going in for a heart op imminently and can barely walk up a flight of stairs without getting out of breath i'll struggle somewhat making multiple trips carrying 50Litre bin bags!.
The only lifts i can get from friends/family are at the weekend as the tip will be closed when we have finished work during the week - So it still results in a weeks worth of rubbish building up before we can get rid.
No taxi driver is going to be willing to drive me to the tip with a couple of bags of two week old festering rubbish and nappies (Especially now it is covered in bin juices!)
I Pointed out my issues with getting to the tip so they advised us that we should leave it in our house until collection day, Then put it at the collection point. They will only remove 5 bags per household so we must only put out 5 at a time - If we put out more then 5 it will not be collected and we will be fined for fly tipping. If we leave the excess rubbish from the next two weeks in the alleyway between now and collection day we will be fined for fly-tipping. If we leave it in our yard we will be fined for creating an unsanitary environment for our neighbours (Not that it will fit, We have a total of 4 full size and 1 half size bin in a terraced yard when you include the recycling bins!).
So that's their official stance.
Attempting to dispose of rubbish in the correct manner = Bad Resident. No collection for you, Sit in the corner and think about what you've done.
Placing rubbish in the yard on top of bins Creates an unsanitary environment for my neighbours = Bad resident, Have a fine.
Allow my child to live and play in a house full of trash and bags full of used nappies for a week at a time = Perfectly fine.
There is a silver lining though, They offered to send me a free pack of bin bags
s.
Or take a bag-load of nappies to the department and give it to whoever sees you. "Since you won't collect this, I've brought it to you."Mr AJ said:
They won't collect the extra bin until it's empty.
That's stupefyingly ridiculous logic...However people like this are genetically programmed to do as little as possible other than have 'meetings', eat biscuits and talk about 'assessments'. And possibly reorganise 'teams'. After all, the longer they can spend doing that, the less time they have for actually DOING anything, and hopefully by then it will 4.00pm and time to go home early. All they have to do is keep it up every day until they can take early retirement due to stress on a pension fund you've paid for in deference to your own.
I would escalate the matter, quoting the stupidities, to the Chief Exec or possibly a sympathetic Councillor. Once you have a good Councillor on your side things can happen.
I had a similar refuse bin problem with my local council but rather than put up with the usual useless response from the council I found out who my local councellors are, obtained their email addresses from the Council Website, and emailed all three asking just what a ratepayer needed to do to get their bins emptied in this town? I may also have mentioned if the council would mind if I simply dumped my black bin bags in their foyer?
By 9.00pm that evening I had had an email from the manager in charge of "Streetscene" ( I bet some consultant charged the idiots in charge a fortune to rename refuse collection that made up name) telling me that my bags would be collected the next day.
Whiih they were by three men in a wagon. They could even have been the same three men who had left them the previous day.
Use your local elected representatives, they rely on your votes.
Cheers,
Tony
By 9.00pm that evening I had had an email from the manager in charge of "Streetscene" ( I bet some consultant charged the idiots in charge a fortune to rename refuse collection that made up name) telling me that my bags would be collected the next day.
Whiih they were by three men in a wagon. They could even have been the same three men who had left them the previous day.
Use your local elected representatives, they rely on your votes.
Cheers,
Tony
in French, sorry but this is exactly what you need to do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKIE3IUkkp8
Did they specify the size of the bags you'll be allowed to use?
When my brother was at uni he lived in a shared house and, from memory, they would only collect one or two bags per house per week. Fine if there's only a couple living there, but 5 or 6 independant tenants it was a problem.
That was untill they found Wheelie Bin sized bin bags
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heavy-Wheelie-Black-Liners...
We have a bit of a problem at the moment, 6 individually let rooms in a shared house plus occasional parters and friends staying for a while. We did have 2 rubbish bins and 1 for recycling but the council decided to take one away as it was only one per house despite other shared houses down the road having 4 outside. We have requested an extra large wheelie bin but haven't managed to get one yet.
When my brother was at uni he lived in a shared house and, from memory, they would only collect one or two bags per house per week. Fine if there's only a couple living there, but 5 or 6 independant tenants it was a problem.
That was untill they found Wheelie Bin sized bin bags
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heavy-Wheelie-Black-Liners...We have a bit of a problem at the moment, 6 individually let rooms in a shared house plus occasional parters and friends staying for a while. We did have 2 rubbish bins and 1 for recycling but the council decided to take one away as it was only one per house despite other shared houses down the road having 4 outside. We have requested an extra large wheelie bin but haven't managed to get one yet.
I have a similar problem this week as I missed the bins and so have a full bin for the next fortnight with nowhere to put this coming fortnights rubbish.
our local tip won't let you throw away food waste or nappies, so I can't even take my black bin bags (mixed waste) to the tip, and so my full bin problem will continue for a few months (as the bin men wont take bin bags that are not in the wheelie bin) so I have to store the rubbish in my garage and gradually squeeze it in to the wheelie bin over the next couple of months.
our local tip won't let you throw away food waste or nappies, so I can't even take my black bin bags (mixed waste) to the tip, and so my full bin problem will continue for a few months (as the bin men wont take bin bags that are not in the wheelie bin) so I have to store the rubbish in my garage and gradually squeeze it in to the wheelie bin over the next couple of months.
Wondered if this would get moved..! 
I'll give them another ring tomorrow, To give them once last chance to be sensible and if not i'll give the local councillor a go!
I'm afraid i won't be setting fire to anything (As amusing as that would be for about 10 minutes before i'm arrested!) - However i could use the packing supplies at work to build a black-bin sized box, Put it inside then get a friendly local courier company to deliver the box to the council offices (FAO the helpful young lady on the phone!) with a note that reads "It's not our problem"
I'll give them another ring tomorrow, To give them once last chance to be sensible and if not i'll give the local councillor a go!
I'm afraid i won't be setting fire to anything (As amusing as that would be for about 10 minutes before i'm arrested!) - However i could use the packing supplies at work to build a black-bin sized box, Put it inside then get a friendly local courier company to deliver the box to the council offices (FAO the helpful young lady on the phone!) with a note that reads "It's not our problem"
This is why people are dumping stuff all over the place. Had a similar issue with our bins because for reasons that escape me the bin men decided to turn up at 6am on a totally different day to normal. Result was that nobodies bins were collected. Phoned them up and complained and was told that they would collect my rubbish the next day (the day bins are normally collected) They did, but left every other bin in the street full despite them being out for collection as well. Following day a load of rancid crap appeared dumped by the garages at the bottom of the road which was then reported and collected by the council.
Retards. Apparently they also randomly change the collection dates over Christmas for about a month but with no logic applied at all and instead of sending a letter put a memo on their website. This means overflowing bins which are then left for weeks to stink while the bin men continue on thier jolly way without actually collecting anything. Obviously someone on the council assumes that we all sit reading the refuse collection bin memo website on a daily basis just to check they are still doing the job they're paid to do.
Retards. Apparently they also randomly change the collection dates over Christmas for about a month but with no logic applied at all and instead of sending a letter put a memo on their website. This means overflowing bins which are then left for weeks to stink while the bin men continue on thier jolly way without actually collecting anything. Obviously someone on the council assumes that we all sit reading the refuse collection bin memo website on a daily basis just to check they are still doing the job they're paid to do.
Our cretin council haven't taken the bins on their scheduled day last week, everyone has left the bins in the street incase they come randomly.. Still nothing. Checked the website and the date is next Tuesday, so a month without being emptied.
Bin bags are being piled up next to the bins now..
Bin bags are being piled up next to the bins now..
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