• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Rubbish Collection Rant

Status
Not open for further replies.

Lucan

Established Member
Joined
21 Feb 2018
Messages
1,211
Location
Wales
The only thing I can think of that I get*, or should get, for paying >£200 pcm Council Tax is routine rubbish collection. But for the last 3 weeks even that has stopped. It seems that every time there is a change of Chief Rubbish Office in the council (sorry, I meant "Recycling Officer", no make that "Rubbish Officer" after all) he has to change the pattern of rubbish collection just to make a mark. As a result the entire system goes to the pictures. BTW, I live in the sticks, in Wales.

Phoned them up (I tried a 3rd time this morning) and after getting a lengthy recorded speech in English and Welsh about data privacy etc, it then tells you (again in English and Welsh) to sod off and look at their web site. It only then asks if you want to speak in English or Welsh. Then after listening to canned music for a couple of minutes a voice cuts in to say that, by the way, there is a 40 minute wait to speak to anyone. Why the heck didn't they say that in the first place? There is no way I am going to hang on a phone for "40 minutes", which probably means > an hour.

OK, I have already been to their web site. They say that this will allow them to "understand your problem better". I wonder what part of "You haven't collected my rubbish" they would find hard to understand ? Anyway, after 10-15 minutes of palaver registering and navigating past the boasts about how green they are, I enter my complaint. I think it has gone into a black hole. Every time I check the status of my complaint on line (they gave it a number) it says "Scheduled". Just that, "Scheduled". What the heck does that mean? My idea of something scheduled is having a time and date for action, or at least a date. I suspect it just means that they are scheduled to read my complaint. Who knows?

I wonder what to do. Perhaps I should let the rubbish continue to pile out into the road with traffic cones around it until the police get involved. Solicitor's letter to the council? What is the legal requirement on councils anyway? I hear that in North Wales they are now down to 4-weekly collections, mine is two. Where would it stop - yearly collections? I am already burning everything that is burnable. Perhaps ultimately we will have to eat the stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favour of communal services, and don't mind paying more than my share as I can afford it (eg for schools). After all, if it were not for such services we would see things like rubbish piling up in the streets ..... Oh wait a minute .....!

* My usage of council facilities :-
Schools - No
Social service - No
Leisure facilites - I amuse myself
Street lighting - Dont have, dont want
Library - I do use it, but have donated about 200 books to them to date, probably paid for myself
Police - Never see them
Road maintenance - I don't damage the road, lorries do. I'd be happier if the road were a dirt track TBH - there would be less passing traffic.
Roadside hedge cutting - Cut it myself
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

DarloRich

Veteran Member
Joined
12 Oct 2010
Messages
29,182
Location
Fenny Stratford
Write to your local Councillor. Mine has always been really good at sorting out local issues like this. As an aside your final paragraph is quite silly.

BTW- I get a weekly collection of rubbish, recycling and green/food waste. Works really well ;)
 

Bantamzen

Established Member
Joined
4 Dec 2013
Messages
9,669
Location
Baildon, West Yorkshire
Legally speaking I'm not sure what is actually required, fortnightly collections are now common place across much of the country (they are the norm in Bradford where I am) and I seem to remember that a lot of regulation was amended & watered down within the last decade or so? And then of course there is the matter of ever reducing funding going from central to local government, along with added pressures to local services, or at least those that are left after wide-ranging cuts means that many councils are having to push back on weekly collections to fortnightly. Although I have to say 4 weekly would in my mind constitute a serious problem.

What can you do about it? Again I'm not sure what legal action you could actually take without throwing a lot of money at it. So keep on at the council, contact your local councillor, MP etc, & if its a big problem in your area contact local media. To be fair in my part of the world, Bradford Council have developed a decent enough mobile device app that gives a quick system of reporting missed collections, and even push alerts for when & what the next collections are for (although out of curiosity I hit the "missed collection" button & have now generated a report, so its actually a bit too easy).

Just a final thought, we all pay taxes both local & national where we don't necessarily use all the services they pay for. It tends not to help an argument by ranting about not using x, y & z services because most people will be able to point to many they don't use, but that's the way our local and central governments are funded. The alternative would be to charge individually, and with so many services that you do use it could get messy trying to keep up with them all. Plus if one individually funded service needs more funds, being separated from a central fund would mean instant & more increases to pay for them.
 

Lucan

Established Member
Joined
21 Feb 2018
Messages
1,211
Location
Wales
Just a final thought, we all pay taxes both local & national where we don't necessarily use all the services they pay for. It tends not to help an argument by ranting about not using x, y & z services because most people will be able to point to many they don't use
I think you (and DarloRich) may have missed my point that I am very much in favour of communal local services. As an extreme example I would be in favour of the local council sponsoring a ballet performance in the local theatre, even though I have never been to a ballet in my life and I am not likely to. I went to school in my time, paid for by then local ratepayers so I don't mind now paying for a following generation in their turn.

My point in listing services I don't actually use today was to highlight that at least I should get the one service that I do need. As a polemic device it obviously misfired :(
 

DarloRich

Veteran Member
Joined
12 Oct 2010
Messages
29,182
Location
Fenny Stratford
@Lucan honestly - contact your local councillor. Mine has been really good at sporting out issues like this. He responded really quickly and offered a good follow up.
 

Bantamzen

Established Member
Joined
4 Dec 2013
Messages
9,669
Location
Baildon, West Yorkshire
I think you (and DarloRich) may have missed my point that I am very much in favour of communal local services. As an extreme example I would be in favour of the local council sponsoring a ballet performance in the local theatre, even though I have never been to a ballet in my life and I am not likely to. I went to school in my time, paid for by then local ratepayers so I don't mind now paying for a following generation in their turn.

My point in listing services I don't actually use today was to highlight that at least I should get the one service that I do need. As a polemic device it obviously misfired :(

@Lucan honestly - contact your local councillor. Mine has been really good at sporting out issues like this. He responded really quickly and offered a good follow up.

As DarloRich says, talk to your local councillor. You should be getting the service, and there might be a simple solution to get it resolved. If the helplines are too busy, and they too will be subject to any budgetary cuts, then this is exactly why councillors are there.
 

Geezertronic

Established Member
Joined
14 Apr 2009
Messages
4,089
Location
Birmingham
You ought to have lived in Birmingham for the last couple of years when the binmen went on strike. Things are supposed to be back to normal but it's obviously taking some while to catch back up. It doesn't help when the contractors who came in to help emptied the bins of Solihull residents in roads adjacent to the Birmingham ones they were supposed to collect on...
 

GusB

Established Member
Associate Staff
Buses & Coaches
Joined
9 Jul 2016
Messages
6,545
Location
Elginshire
There's nothing guaranteed to get UK citizens worked up than bin collections (or lack thereof)!

Our local council has recently implemented a c£30 annual charge for the collection of garden waste. Fair enough, some may say, and the neighbouring council has done this for over a year. However, our council also collects food waste - either in a dedicated food waste receptacle - or in the garden waste bin for households which already have one. They'll empty the bin free of charge if it only contains food waste, but add grass cuttings and it suddenly becomes chargeable. It's collected by the same crews, in the same vehicle and ends up at the same composting facility.
 

Senex

Established Member
Joined
1 Apr 2014
Messages
2,752
Location
York
Write to your local Councillor. Mine has always been really good at sorting out local issues like this. As an aside your final paragraph is quite silly.

BTW- I get a weekly collection of rubbish, recycling and green/food waste. Works really well ;)
My local (Labour) councillor doesn't reply to letters or e-mails (and it's not just mine either!).
 

thejuggler

Member
Joined
8 Jan 2016
Messages
1,186
E-mail your local Councillors - head it "complaint" - if election time is coming up they may take notice.

If Councillors aren't responding to emails send a formal complaint to the Council. Even better submit a 'question from the public' and attend a Council meeting to ask them why they aren't representing their constituents.

My parents now have 4 bins. We have two. We don't bother with the green one. Far too may rules on what can and can't go in it.
 

Howardh

Established Member
Joined
17 May 2011
Messages
8,120
E-mail your local Councillors - head it "complaint" - if election time is coming up they may take notice.

If Councillors aren't responding to emails send a formal complaint to the Council. Even better submit a 'question from the public' and attend a Council meeting to ask them why they aren't representing their constituents.

My parents now have 4 bins. We have two. We don't bother with the green one. Far too may rules on what can and can't go in it.
Which bin do local election flyers go in??

Meanwhile about local councillors - I had one on my street about 10 doors up. We never got our street un-potholed, lights mended etc until last, as if it were done at any other time he'd be accused of favouritism. So having an MP or councillor on your avenue might not be so much of an advantage...
 

Ianno87

Veteran Member
Joined
3 May 2015
Messages
15,215
* My usage of council facilities :-
Schools - No
Social service - No
Leisure facilites - I amuse myself
Street lighting - Dont have, dont want
Library - I do use it, but have donated about 200 books to them to date, probably paid for myself
Police - Never see them
Road maintenance - I don't damage the road, lorries do. I'd be happier if the road were a dirt track TBH - there would be less passing traffic.
Roadside hedge cutting - Cut it myself

You "dont want" street lighting?! So you've gone your whole life without walking anywhere in the hours of darkness? Hilarious.
 

Howardh

Established Member
Joined
17 May 2011
Messages
8,120
You "dont want" street lighting?! So you've gone your whole life without walking anywhere in the hours of darkness? Hilarious.
I wouldn't mind, got one of those white ones right outside and it's like a football floodlight! Helps though to find the keyhole, especially after a few. Although the neighbours can clearly see me wobble up the drive. Swings and....
 

Cowley

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Global Moderator
Joined
15 Apr 2016
Messages
15,687
Location
Devon
...Roundabouts.
I think Exeter City Council spend a lot of their council tax money on making roundabouts look pretty...
 

Peter Mugridge

Veteran Member
Joined
8 Apr 2010
Messages
14,753
Location
Epsom
You "dont want" street lighting?! So you've gone your whole life without walking anywhere in the hours of darkness? Hilarious.

I'd honestly prefer to live in an unlit area myself. It doesn't mean not going out at night either; having spent six years at a boarding school in the country it's surprising how easy it is at night once you've let your eyes get dark adapted, and that's on moonless nights. If there's a moon anywhere near full it's really a lot brighter than you might think.
 

Howardh

Established Member
Joined
17 May 2011
Messages
8,120
I'd honestly prefer to live in an unlit area myself. It doesn't mean not going out at night either; having spent six years at a boarding school in the country it's surprising how easy it is at night once you've let your eyes get dark adapted, and that's on moonless nights. If there's a moon anywhere near full it's really a lot brighter than you might think.
It's been proved (OK, I saw it on the internet so pinch of salt and all that) that on a very clear night with no light pollution, and a very long exposure, Venus casts a shadow.
 

Jonny

Established Member
Joined
10 Feb 2011
Messages
2,562
Besides, a maceration system - one that liquidises waste - would be quite a good idea if waste proves problematic, as long as you have a sewer connection. It reduces many types of waste to a consistency similar to poop and/or toilet paper.
 

DarloRich

Veteran Member
Joined
12 Oct 2010
Messages
29,182
Location
Fenny Stratford
Besides, a maceration system - one that liquidises waste - would be quite a good idea if waste proves problematic, as long as you have a sewer connection. It reduces many types of waste to a consistency similar to poop and/or toilet paper.

and is a right PITA to unblock when someone chucks something silly down the bog! I am out.
 

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,539
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
Besides, a maceration system - one that liquidises waste - would be quite a good idea if waste proves problematic, as long as you have a sewer connection. It reduces many types of waste to a consistency similar to poop and/or toilet paper.

Composting is better for the kind of food type waste you can put in those systems. Food waste in a wheelie bin doesn't need collecting often - the bin keeps the pests out. I only put my food waste out about once every 4-5 weeks even though we have a weekly collection.
 

Lucan

Established Member
Joined
21 Feb 2018
Messages
1,211
Location
Wales
You "dont want" street lighting?! So you've gone your whole life without walking anywhere in the hours of darkness?
I don't want or need street lighting where I am (and for which location I pay my council tax) today; in fact I cannot say that I ever benefit much from street lighting in my present circumstances. I live 8 miles from the nearest street lighting, although sometimes I might drive through a bit of it on a town bypass; but with cars all using their headlights even under street lighting it's a bit irrelevant*. Where I work is also miles from any street lighting and where I shop (only occasionally) is a supermarket with its own lighting. If, rarely, I am shopping in a high street it is generally in daylight anyway.

But as I have been at pains to explain above, I do not object to paying towards communal things even if I don't need them myself. The council tax is based on a [very questionable**] assumption of what people can afford, not on what they need.

* It was not always so. People used to drive on well-lit roads with sidelights. But they got tired of switching their headlights on and off during the patchy power cuts during the strikes of the early 1970's, so they started to leave headlights on all the time, and the practice stuck.

** The present Council Tax is still based on the underlying assumption of the old property "Rates" - which is that only landlords owned houses and "ordinary people" just rented them. The "Rates" was meant as a tax on the landlords related to what rent they could expect. Rather than rely on landlords' lies about how much they received in rent, the local authority made a once-and-for-all assessment of each property, rather like the Council Tax rating band today. A local taxation based on the number of earning adults in a house, and hence slightly more connected to the amount of services needed and what could be afforded, was attempted in the 1980's (The "Poll Tax") and ended in riots, unfortunately.
 

cjp

Member
Joined
28 Jan 2012
Messages
1,059
Location
In front of a computer
FWIW speaking or trying to speak to anyone at Ealing is just as bad.
They want things done on line.
They hate talking to people. They love emails.
They can only do what the computer lets them do.
I buck the system by writing to them and if I really feel annoyed it is a pen and ink job rather than typed. Of course not a lot of help with a missed collection but a real letter of complaint may well produce an illiterate letter about which you can also complain just as mine have.
 

DarloRich

Veteran Member
Joined
12 Oct 2010
Messages
29,182
Location
Fenny Stratford
FWIW speaking or trying to speak to anyone at Ealing is just as bad.
They want things done on line.
They hate talking to people. They love emails.
They can only do what the computer lets them do.
I buck the system by writing to them and if I really feel annoyed it is a pen and ink job rather than typed. Of course not a lot of help with a missed collection but a real letter of complaint may well produce an illiterate letter about which you can also complain just as mine have.

This is completely pointless other than in making you feel self important. You are wasting both your and the councils time and money! Thye want things done on line because they have so few staff they have to try and use them as much as they can. it means the process can be automated as far as possible and time and money used for better things. Personally i have better things in my life to worry about but each to their own!

Food waste in a wheelie bin doesn't need collecting often - the bin keeps the pests out. I only put my food waste out about once every 4-5 weeks even though we have a weekly collection.

Do you? I put mind into the green bin and get it emptied every week. Even living on my own I produce enough tea bags, peelings and remains to make it worth while. You cant keep it in that little caddy that long surely? I certainly don't after I once found maggots inside the caddy!
 

cjp

Member
Joined
28 Jan 2012
Messages
1,059
Location
In front of a computer
This is completely pointless other ......
..... rant rant------ e and time and money used for better things. Personally i have better things in my life to worry about but each to their own!

But you did not have better things to worry about did you?
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,539
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
o you? I put mind into the green bin and get it emptied every week. Even living on my own I produce enough tea bags, peelings and remains to make it worth while. You cant keep it in that little caddy that long surely? I certainly don't after I once found maggots inside the caddy!

Once a week I tip the caddy into the main bin and put the caddy through the dishwasher. When there's a decent amount in there, or when I've cut the grass and filled it up with that, it goes out for collection.
 

Typhoon

Established Member
Joined
2 Nov 2017
Messages
3,488
Location
Kent
As DarloRich says, talk to your local councillor. You should be getting the service, and there might be a simple solution to get it resolved. If the helplines are too busy, and they too will be subject to any budgetary cuts, then this is exactly why councillors are there.
And now might be the best time to do it - May is election season.
 

whhistle

On Moderation
Joined
30 Dec 2010
Messages
2,636
Our local council has recently implemented a c£30 annual charge for the collection of garden waste.
This gets my goat!

I see the reasoning - those in flats don't have garden bins.
Okay, I wil stop recycling, and thus stop using my recycling bin. Does that mean I get a £30 a year discount?

It's a simple money making scheme by the local councils.
 

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,539
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
This gets my goat!

I see the reasoning - those in flats don't have garden bins.
Okay, I wil stop recycling, and thus stop using my recycling bin. Does that mean I get a £30 a year discount?

It's a simple money making scheme by the local councils.

The Councils are being forced to do this (and similar things with parking, making it awkward to use tips etc) by being capped. They need to be able to raise Council Tax but can't, so they have to get funds elsewhere.
 

Lucan

Established Member
Joined
21 Feb 2018
Messages
1,211
Location
Wales
This [charge for the collection of garden waste] gets my goat!
I see the reasoning - those in flats don't have garden bins.
I don't see the reasoning. Flats tend to be in a lower tax band, all other things being equal, . Your garden adds to your house value and therefore pushes you up the tax bands, so you are paying the council for having a garden but getting nothing back for it.
 

ATW Alex 101

Established Member
Joined
28 Dec 2010
Messages
2,083
Location
Ellesmere port
Re waste collection; what gets on my bugbear is that should you dare have so much rubbish that your wheelie-bin lid is half an inch open they point-blank refuse to collect it and you get a snotty sticker saying something about "our waste technicians safety is paramount and your bin was considered unsafe for them to collect". Yes, those brick sh*thouse men might get injured by your bin-lid being an inch open.

Another one is should there be so much a plastic bottle or sheet of paper in your wheelie-bin, they will again, point-blank refuse the lot. And to think we pay our council-tax for this shambles...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top