Ex-deputy leader complains of flies in recycling containers

Richard Evans – Local Democracy Reporter

The former deputy council leader has complained to the chief executive and recycling chiefs of “flies buzzing inside his recycling containers” due to ongoing missed collections

Llangollen resident and former councillor Stuart Davies sent an email to Denbighshire County Council’s chief executive and recycling bosses on Tuesday, complaining he has uncollected rotting food.

This week the council’s cabinet vowed to borrow money to pay for 11 more recycling vehicles and additional staff whilst upping the number of collections after admitting they’d underestimated the scale of rolling out the new Trolibocs system to 46,000 homes.

Residents have complained for months of missed collections, piled-up rubbish, rats, maggots, and chaos across the county since the scheme was launched in June.

‘Useless’

Whilst a detailed plan is yet to be unveiled, corporate director Tony Ward told a chamber of councillors at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that things should start to improve in a matter of weeks as the new recycling routes are put in place.

But Mr Davies, a former deputy leader of the council, sent an angry letter to chief executive Graham Boase as well as recycling head Paul Jackson this week.

“We got back from our month away last week,” said Mr Davies in the email, copying in the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

“This week was the first collection for us for over five weeks. Guess what? They still can’t get it right! The waste food hasn’t been collected this week.

“I’m not going to use your useless online reporting. That doesn’t work. Nobody answers those. So Graham (Boase), the buck stops with you. How many months is it now? And it’s still not working correctly.

“Which one of you is going to get my rotting food collected? The flies are buzzing inside the container after just a week.”

Fund

Speaking at the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Mr Boase refused to put an exact timeline on the new recycling plan but said it had been a difficult time for officers, councillors, and residents.

He said: “The question is when will it be right?

“What day will it be right? Tony (Ward, corporate director) has said it will be a matter of weeks, but it’s really difficult to say it will be a set date because, by giving you a set date, you’re setting yourself up to fail if it is a day or two after that because there are lots of moving parts.”

At the cabinet meeting, Denbighshire agreed to spend an additional £1.067m on its “botched” recycling scheme every year.

The council’s cabinet also agreed to borrow an additional £1.299m in capital expenditure to fund eight new recycling vehicles as well as new drivers and loaders.

A Denbighshire County Council spokesman said: “Cabinet has approved a proposal to invest additional resources in the service which will provide the permanent solution to the issues we’ve seen with recycling collections since the new system was introduced in June.

“Although the vast majority of residents across the county are now receiving the expected level of service, with a weekly recycling collection, we do accept that we still have some issues with specific properties that are not getting a consistent service.

“We do appreciate how frustrating that is for those residents, and we are working hard to resolve those remaining issues.

“We are confident that the introduction of re-designed recycling rounds will enable us to address any remaining issues and to provide a consistent and effective service to all 46,000 households in the county.”

He added: “We cannot comment on individual cases, and we would encourage residents to report any missed collections using the formal channels, using the online form or by contacting our customer services team.”