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
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"
Didn't expect this many replies - It would seem you do not mess with an Englishmans bins! 
I attempted to extract some common sense from the council again yesterday, With no luck they just re-iterated the same old rubbish (
). Pretty much what i expected but i rang through from my work phone this time so atleast i have some tangible evidence of their ridiculous attitude:
"Getting rid of the rubbish is not our problem."
"Do not leave the rubbish outside or we will prosecute you for fly tipping"
"Keep it [Your rubbish] inside your house until collection day."
'But i have a two year old child, I can't have her living in a house filled with rubbish now can i?'
"Thats not our problem."
'So when are you going to collect our rubbish?'
"On the next collection date, If you have the correct amount of bins for your property"
'So when are you going to collect the extra bin?'
"When it is empty"
'So when are you going to empty it?'
"When you only have one bin."
So when i got off the phone i popped an email off to my local MP and got a near-immediate response asking for my postal address.
Fast forward to today and two items of mail arrived, One from the council and one from the house of commons.
The council's package contained a very generous allocation of two bin bags for my "Excess waste" for the next two weeks.
The house of commons letter contained two sentences which look like a canned response
"Dear Mr. X,
Thank you for your letter dated 31st January, I am sorry to hear of your problem. I will look into it immediately. "
Not exactly holding my breath.
I attempted to extract some common sense from the council again yesterday, With no luck they just re-iterated the same old rubbish (
). Pretty much what i expected but i rang through from my work phone this time so atleast i have some tangible evidence of their ridiculous attitude:"Getting rid of the rubbish is not our problem."
"Do not leave the rubbish outside or we will prosecute you for fly tipping"
"Keep it [Your rubbish] inside your house until collection day."
'But i have a two year old child, I can't have her living in a house filled with rubbish now can i?'
"Thats not our problem."
'So when are you going to collect our rubbish?'
"On the next collection date, If you have the correct amount of bins for your property"
'So when are you going to collect the extra bin?'
"When it is empty"
'So when are you going to empty it?'
"When you only have one bin."
So when i got off the phone i popped an email off to my local MP and got a near-immediate response asking for my postal address.
Fast forward to today and two items of mail arrived, One from the council and one from the house of commons.
The council's package contained a very generous allocation of two bin bags for my "Excess waste" for the next two weeks.
The house of commons letter contained two sentences which look like a canned response
"Dear Mr. X,
Thank you for your letter dated 31st January, I am sorry to hear of your problem. I will look into it immediately. "
Not exactly holding my breath.
happychap said:
Under cover of darkness, wheel the bin away from your house and tip it. At least this way the bins empty and the council will clear the mess up because that's what they do.Not the best solution but practical, in fact why dont you phone the council to report the offending fly tip.
Won't be doing that i'm afraid! Local council have cottoned on to the fact that leaving "Excess waste" at the collection points instead of taking it away, then labelling it "Fly tipped" the following day is a neat little earner. Have heard stories of one woman made the mistake of putting a bin bag out with a letter in it for collection. A few other houses on the street also leaves a bag or two out for collection in addition to the bins. Naturally the bin men leave the "Excess waste" because they're lazy sods - Later on a Local 'Warden' comes around, finds her name + address in one of the bags but nothing in any of the others and she got prosecuted and fined for 20-odd bags of rubbish!.mph1977 said:
it's amazing how the powerfully built company director denziens of PH want the council to flex the terms of a contract to suit them, but if their customers wanted them to do so they'd have absolutely no problem with saying no or charging handsomely for the privelege.
It's amazing how some of the powerfully built company director denizens of PH fail at basic comprehension. Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff