Month-long wait to get bins emptied ‘not good enough’

Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough is to explore all options available to it to ensure residents are not waiting up to four weeks for their bins to be emptied.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

A proposal to leave no stone unturned in the search for an acceptable solution to the problem was put forward by Alderman Gareth Wilson at the council’s monthly meeting on Monday, March 28 and seconded by his party’s group leader, DUP Councillor, Mark Baxter.

Raising the issue at the meeting, Alderman Wilson said he accepts industrial action has not helped the situation but asked what the council could do to get the bins lifted as soon as possible.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Despite my mass I cannot tramp into it any more to get any extra capacity and I am just wondering, on behalf of everyone in Cusher are we any closer to understanding when those bins will be lifted or are we looking at another fortnight?

Black binsBlack bins
Black bins

“If that could be established it would be really useful to let other people know as well.”

Responding to these comments, Council’s strategic director of neighbourhood services, Sharon O’Gorman said the council was determined to get those collections back into the route cycle, meaning it could be four weeks before the bins are lifted.

Not satisfied with this response, Alderman Wilson said he could see this proposed solution being a “problem”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I know we have had some Covid-19 disruption and it has been really helpful that we have been able to tell people to leave their bins out but in a fortnight’s time I am going to have two wheelie bins worth of rubbish,” he said.

“Our messaging has to be clear on this and I would like to see a situation where a one-off lift could be undertaken to gather these bins up. I think asking people to wait another two weeks is just too much to ask.”

His party’s group leader, Councillor Mark Baxter told the chamber many brown bins had not been lifted, as they were supposed to be, in Waringstown and said he would “be very disappointed” if the council  asked residents to wait another two weeks for this rubbish to be lifted.

“I think we need to look at something here to get this sorted out. I know the department is under pressure, I speak to supervisors daily, they are very good but I know with sickness and of course with the industrial action last week they are under pressure,” he said.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“At the workshop the other night I did ask if there was anything we could do even looking at outside contractors to come in and do one lift.

“People are paying an absolute fortune for this service and I think when you ask anybody on the street what the council does for them they say they lift your bins.

“In fact a lot might say that is all we do and yet they are paying on average £800-£1,000 a year in rates so to fail them on this service and ask them to wait four weeks for a bin cycle is not acceptable.

“I think we have to do whatever we have to do and find the budget required to get this sorted out.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

SDLP councillor Eamon McNeill noted that black bins have not been lifted in his constituency and said the suggestion from officers of simply missing this lift would be “a big issue, especially with some households having two black bins”.

UUP group leader Alderman Jim Speers told the chamber he had been emailed about this very issue during this discussion and one of the complaints in the email was that the council’s website “as usual gives zero information” about the situation.

“I have not checked it but I think this is a key issue. Our communication in relation to this issue has not been good enough,” he said.

“As far as we are concerned as public representatives and collectively as a council, it would be good to communicate with people in relation to this matter and if there is anyway that things can be stretched to try and accommodate another lift that would be worthwhile.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“A fortnight is a good while, but a month is twice as long.”

SDLP group leader, Councillor Thomas O’Hanlon said he would be in support of Alderman Wilson’s proposal and claimed up to 22,000 bins were not lifted across the district last week.

“We need to put arrangements in place to have these collections made as quickly as possible. I’m told there was up to 22,000 bins missed last week. That is a big proportion of our householders,” he said.

“Alderman Speers is right, last Thursday [March 24] is the last time our social media accounts have had anything about bins. Other than that, industrial action has been inadvertently mentioned but that is not good enough.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I have spoken to senior officers about this. It is important we get communication right and get the bins emptied. It is not as if it is a weekly collection, it is fortnightly, it means there are households across the district that will go one month without a bin collection and I am sorry that is not good enough.”

Independent councillor Paul Berry said he too fully supported the proposal on the floor as the alternative is simply “not good enough”.

“I would like to see an alternative arrangement in place,” he said.

“It has been very difficult for us to tell constituents, some of whom won’t even have vehicles to go to a recycling centre. People are paying their rates and they expect that service at the very least.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Ms O’Gorman told the chamber that the council’s senior management team do share councillors frustrations on this matter and promised see what can be achieved in the context of “available resources and working time directives”.

Related topics: