THE YT twitter feed was pinging away last night with residents totally exasperated at the chaos caused by the re-organisation of the Thurrock bin collections.
YT was the only member of the press that attended the briefing given by council officers and the portfolio holder for bins, cllr Victoria Holloway.
Our memories may be slipping but there was no great stress on “possible teething troubles”.
Thurrock is now into its fourth week of the “Great bin fiasco” and there seems to be no great signs of it abating.
Last night (Thursday) resident from Chafford, Orsett, Horndon (to name just a few) vented their frustration at seeing their un-emptied bin outside their house.
What has compounded their anger is that the portfolio holder, although apologetic at full council last week, did not give any indication as to when the problem would be sorted.
Conservative Envirnoment spokesman Cllr Simon Wootton said “Unfortunately, bin collection services in Thurrock currently fall far short of what is required and what was promised. We were told there would be ‘teething problems’, but after several weeks with seemingly little or no progress it appears that the issues may be bigger than anticipated.
“Residents have complained to councillors about collections being missed repeatedly; indeed some people have been told to leave the bins out indefinitely because the council is unsure when it will be making the collections. Others still report that their bins haven’t been collected for several weeks.
“These changes have been made to save £300,000, but one has to question how much it is costing to sort out the mess they’ve created. It’s clear this has not been well-handled, with communication failures from the start and significantly more problems than expected.
“Cllr Holloway needs to ensure this improves dramatically in the coming week to stop her so-called ‘teething problems’ becoming a total disaster.”
I complained to my two local councillors the reason they gave for the non collection was the £10 million cuts by the current government !? One even reminded me I was in receipt of the lowest council tax in Essex.
So there you have it.,bin collections previously running smoothly then the geniuses at New Road decide to change the days,chaos ensues,. and it’s all the fault of the Government cuts.You couldn’t make it up could you.
I’m no mind reader, but PERMAN, are your councillors Labour by any chance?
I deliberately didn’t give a clue to the political leanings of the councillors in question, and no your not a mind reader, and yes both Labour!!!!!
I bet all over the country when the public complain to their councillors about poor services they all get the same stock answer from Labour administrations” it’s all the fault of the Government cuts”.Must be a directive from Labour HQ.
One BIG CUT comrade kent should do now—get rid of the Wheeled Bin Management Team. On the Thurrock Council Web Site this week, Monday 50 Roads missed, Tuesday 87 Roads missed, Wednesday 106 Roads missed.
PERMAN – Councillor Kent has hoarded £8 million, hiked Council Tax, is going on a spending frenzy and then has the cheek to moan about cuts.
Total shambles indeed, the bins here are totally overflowing and I don’t hold much hope they will be done Wed or Thur as planned, why do they not carry out weekend collections to try and catch up?
Just seems like another thing Thurrock Council has messed up, collections, education, roads, oh well I’m sure T Fest will be exactly as planned and not 7 days late?
fraser
If the missed collections go ‘out’ by one more day ie. Mondays missed collections not collected on Friday then they’l say its back on track anyway.
TBC seem very fond of publishing (‘alleged’) car registration numbers causing missed collections by blocked access (wish I had the time and money to legally pursue that – guilt determined by TBC?).
Surely then time now to publish car numbers of the councillors responsible for the current ‘Operational Difficulties’.
I have made a ‘Not Clearing Rubbish’ complaint to Environmental Protection Officers from TBC requiring a Notice to be served on TBC under the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949.
NB TBC recently prosecuted a Grays resident for breaching such a notice so of course there’l be no double standards.
Well it seems they ARE collecting on a Saturday to catch up, just had the bins done here. Fair play to them for doing something, was fully expecting it all to be left for another few days.
On Tuesday 2nd July collections were missed for the previous Wednesday 26th June. So the shambles has now reached a week – a full circle.
Of course there won’t be fortnightly collections, but it might be fourteen days between collections.