Discussion
Bloody council tips.
Pre-Covid, yes there were large queues on weekends in the summer but the council staff love this new booking system because none of them now have to manage the queues, they can now stand next to the skips, smoking roll-ups and police what goes in what skip.
We are now limited to one visit per week, so if you have a big garden/DIY project you have to store all the waste in your garden and trickle feed it to the tip by weekly visits, by which time it will be soaking wet.
Also, picture this scenario: You wake up and it's a dry sunny day and you think, right let's get that big DIY/Garden job done, previously you went to the tip at the end of the day with the rubbish (even if there was a queue). You could go the next day too if needed, and the next (still not going to be 52 trips per year though). Now you go on-line and discover there are no slots available at the tip for ten days, brilliant.
Also, they are closed Wednesdays, no doubt so the council workers can catch up on their inclusion and equality courses.
When the booking system first started there was a council worker stationed at a barrier checking everyone's email booking. They soon found that task too tedious so they added a QR code to your email and installed a QR scanner next to the barrier. Council worker can now retreat to a little hut and drink tea and read the Daily Star and wait for the occasional driver who is too thick to figure out how to scan their QR code.
Also, what is all this checking post codes nonsense anyway? Was it really a problem where people were sneaking into tips from outside their post code area? Why would anyone do that? And the numbers were surely small. Say ten people a week were sneaking in from another area, using that logic then is it not likely that this was reciprocated by ten people sneaking from your area to another area? Balancing out this whole post code pirates nonsense?
This is in The People's Republic of Swindon
For me, this whole council tip drama has been one of the worst hangovers from Covid.
Pre-Covid, yes there were large queues on weekends in the summer but the council staff love this new booking system because none of them now have to manage the queues, they can now stand next to the skips, smoking roll-ups and police what goes in what skip.
We are now limited to one visit per week, so if you have a big garden/DIY project you have to store all the waste in your garden and trickle feed it to the tip by weekly visits, by which time it will be soaking wet.
Also, picture this scenario: You wake up and it's a dry sunny day and you think, right let's get that big DIY/Garden job done, previously you went to the tip at the end of the day with the rubbish (even if there was a queue). You could go the next day too if needed, and the next (still not going to be 52 trips per year though). Now you go on-line and discover there are no slots available at the tip for ten days, brilliant.
Also, they are closed Wednesdays, no doubt so the council workers can catch up on their inclusion and equality courses.
When the booking system first started there was a council worker stationed at a barrier checking everyone's email booking. They soon found that task too tedious so they added a QR code to your email and installed a QR scanner next to the barrier. Council worker can now retreat to a little hut and drink tea and read the Daily Star and wait for the occasional driver who is too thick to figure out how to scan their QR code.
Also, what is all this checking post codes nonsense anyway? Was it really a problem where people were sneaking into tips from outside their post code area? Why would anyone do that? And the numbers were surely small. Say ten people a week were sneaking in from another area, using that logic then is it not likely that this was reciprocated by ten people sneaking from your area to another area? Balancing out this whole post code pirates nonsense?
This is in The People's Republic of Swindon
For me, this whole council tip drama has been one of the worst hangovers from Covid.
Nickbrapp said:
fly typing has got worse and the council seem dumbfounded that making is harder to get rid of stuff in their Facilties has lead to a increase in rouge tipping.
Exactly. So when the council eventually send a team of workers (Ha!) in a truck out to clear up the fly-tippage, (at council tax payer's expense) the rubbish ends up in exactly the same landfill it would have if they'd let them tip it there in the first place.BananaFama said:
How long has Swindon not been "Wiltshire "? 
Geographically Swindon is located within Wiltshire but it has been a Unitary Authority since 1997 which means it is no longer under the auspices of Wiltshire Council.The ceremonial county of Wiltshire consists of two unitary authority areas, Wiltshire and Swindon, governed respectively by Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council.
Swindon Borough contains two towns: Swindon and Highworth, and several villages.
Spare tyre said:
Years ago I was taking some old kitchen bits to Purton tip.
One of my other jobs was to get a new dishwasher waste hose as I’d broken mine removing the machine
Found a perfect one at the tip but got yelled at for trying to liberate it, I understand the rules but seems sad you can’t recycle stuff at the recycling centre
Ironically the lady who’d shouted at me was taking bits out of my trailer into a “staff only skip” round the back
I used to like using Purton...before bloody Covid. It is closer to me than Cheney Manor.One of my other jobs was to get a new dishwasher waste hose as I’d broken mine removing the machine
Found a perfect one at the tip but got yelled at for trying to liberate it, I understand the rules but seems sad you can’t recycle stuff at the recycling centre
Ironically the lady who’d shouted at me was taking bits out of my trailer into a “staff only skip” round the back
There is no booking system but they do have a Nazi on the entrance now demanding to see a local Council Tax bill or similar, just to make sure you're not from the big bad city.
As for "staff only skip" I have observed them sorting out a kid's bike for the chosen few i.e. their mates.
Edited by Senex on Tuesday 21st March 13:25
Byker28i said:
Hills have the waste service contract for Wiltshire, they run the recyling centers, waste collection and disposal.
It's a huge enterprise now, with as much as possible sorted and recycled and sold at different sites Even the black rubbish gets converted to power station fuel at Westbury. An amazing site
https://www.hills-waste.co.uk/our-sites/westbury
They even tap the methane from the buried waste as part of the land management and use it to generate electricity
So if they are making money from the enterprise, it's strange how Hills are now avid post code checkers (they didn't use to be before covid). It's a huge enterprise now, with as much as possible sorted and recycled and sold at different sites Even the black rubbish gets converted to power station fuel at Westbury. An amazing site
https://www.hills-waste.co.uk/our-sites/westbury
They even tap the methane from the buried waste as part of the land management and use it to generate electricity
One would think, the more waste brought to them, the more profit.
Especially as they actually own the landfill sites from which they have extracted millions of pounds worth of sand and gravel.
Byker28i said:
However, they've made it residents only, so the holiday makers can't take their rubbish there, so they end up stuffing the local street bins, filling them instead.
The locals have started doing it as well,
Congrats on moving from Swindon to Pembrokeshire.The locals have started doing it as well,
In the car park of my local Tesco, there used to be a mini-recycling centre for cardboard, paper, glass and tins etc. and very popular it was too.
Our wise council decided to get rid of something people liked and used so now all the nearby bins are overflowing with s
t.Great success.
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