10 October (Part 1) - This time Bexley Council wheelie wheelie means it
It was going to be new wheelie bins by July
but that didn’t happen; Bexley Council messed up the tendering process and delivery was deferred until
September but September has come and gone with no signs of new bins anywhere.
However at a Council meeting yesterday evening the powers that be were
absolutely confident. The first of the 160,000 new wheelie bins will definitely hit the
streets on 4th November without a shadow of doubt and totally without fail. Nothing can go wrong now.
Delivery will be strung out over 14 weeks ending in the middle of next February.
No deliveries over Christmas and New Year but twice as many in the preceding week.
Contingency plans have been made for bad weather, snow in particular, and as long
as it was not exceptional weather should not cause a delay.
Councillors did not have an awful lot to say and perhaps the most thoughtful
question came from Councillor Stefano Borella (Labour, Slade Green & North End)
who pointed out that 24,000 residents had changed their preferred size of bin
away from the Council’s default choice way back in May and many people will have
moved house by next February. The likelihood is that new occupants would have
chosen differently and the Council had said there could be no going back on the
original choice and that would be potentially inconvenient to say the least.
The responsible Council Officer thought the rule would be relaxed once the main distribution was completed.
From the middle of this month residents will be able to enter their address into
a Council web form and be provided with their bin distribution date. There will
be a big publicity campaign across the borough.
Councillor Borella pressed the Deputy Director for the real reason for the four
months delayed distribution but his request for information was refused.
Council Officers are shortly to go on a jolly to Telford to see bins coming off
the manufacturer’s production line.