19 September (Part 1) - How are they doing? None too good
As social media criticism of Bexley council’s new food and garden waste collection services reaches new levels - threats to dump rubbish on the Civic Office’s steps etc. - it is sending the following email to complainants.
The mixed garden and food waste service is currently being withdrawn and once
the existing brown bins have been removed, free weekly food recycling
collections will commence.
The current brown bins are being removed on a rolling
basis throughout the borough over the next 4 weeks. Garden waste is not classed
as household waste which is why the new chargeable service has been introduced.
When signing up to the garden waste scheme, residents agreed to the terms and
conditions which state that the new service will commence in October 2015.
If your bin is delivered prior to this date you may use it, however the service
is not due to start fully until October.
This like pretty much everything Bexley council says, is in part a lie.
This is what they said in the leaflet encouraging gardeners to sign up…
The new service will start as soon as you get your bin. Really? Could have
fooled me, the first of them
went out at the beginning of September.
My own arrived on the 11th. Now they say we signed up for a service which starts in
October. In my own case, as garden waste is to be collected on the ‘opposite’ - as Bexley
have named it - week as general waste, that will be the 9th October. Five weeks with no collections. My
food bin has not yet arrived.
That may apply to the food box if you are lucky enough to have one.
That didn’t happen either. My garden waste bin was removed a week before the new
240 litre bin was delivered but two doors along my neighbour still has both old and new bins.
Further along the street the new brown bins were ignored on collection day. I had played safe by using my
non-gardening neighbour’s old bin. Because of that I have not
been inconvenienced, many have.
It’s probably all very bad news for Bexley council. If people are asked what the
council does for them the first answer is nearly always rubbish collection and
whilst not perfect, Bexley council ran a reasonably good system. Their
reputation will now be in tatters in many households.
I had become a slightly obsessive recycler separating tins and jars from their
labels, squashing plastic bottles and removing their lids. Maybe I need a
psychoanalyst but I can’t be bothered any more. No longer am I ashamed of throwing out an unwashed baked bean can.
The Deputy Director on a prime ministerial salary
who masterminded this scheme took early retirement as soon
as the council was persuaded to adopt it. Maybe it has been rudderless
ever since. No excuse for fibbing emails though.
Click any image for more of the same.