Cllr Nicola Aisthorpe said residents ‘rightly expect to know whether this service has sufficient resilience’ but council leader Oliver Freeston argued the authority has been transparent about the issues
North East Lincolnshire Council bins on a street in East Marsh; the black or grey recycling bins have been disrupted lately due to a staffing issue, but all other collections are not affected(Image: Donna Clifford/GrimsbyLive)
A Liberal Democrat councillor has criticised communication surrounding recent recycling bin disruption experienced by North East Lincolnshire residents. This month has seen delays in the collection of the grey recycling bins in the borough.
Blue, green and brown bins have been unaffected. The council issued a statement last week stating that staffing issues had caused the most recent delays.
It has asked residents to put grey bins out as normal, and stated they would be collected at the earliest opportunity. The council’s street cleansing teams and other services were also approaching organisations, including neighbouring local authorities, to recruit more temporary staff, to ensure the impact on residents is as minimal as possible.
Extended hour shifts are also being worked to reduce the backlog. Leader of the Liberal Democrat group, Cllr Nicola Aisthorpe (East Marsh Ward) said residents had experienced disruption with bin collections for two weeks, firstly due to a refuse vehicle recall and now “reportedly significant staff sickness”.
Read More: Bin collection delays in North East Lincolnshire amid staffing issues
She said no-one was criticising the hardworking refuse crews, “who have been doing their best in difficult circumstances”. She added: “The question is why the service appears so vulnerable that one problem can lead to widespread disruption across communities.”
“What concerns me most is the communication,” she said. In particular, she noted residents around Grant Thorold Park have repeatedly been told by council services and Humberside Police to put bins out close to collection times and bring them back in afterwards, due to ongoing anti-social behaviour and arson issues.
“When collections were missed, some residents followed that advice and brought their bins back in. Unfortunately, some then missed out on catch-up collections because they had not been told when crews would return. Ward councillors were not informed of the revised arrangements either, making it harder to get accurate information to affected residents.”
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Cllr Aisthorpe said residents should not be penalised for following previous council service and others’ advice. But neither was leaving bins out always practical, given the anti-social behaviour concerns and obstructions to pavements leaving bins out poses.
“Reform UK promised residents they would run services better. Instead, within weeks of taking control, we have seen repeated disruption to a basic frontline service and poor communication with residents affected by it.”
A recycling crew emptying bins in Cleethorpes in earlier this year – extra hours shifts are being worked by crews to get through the backlog on grey bins(Image: North East Lincolnshire Council)
She added the administration can continue to explain why things had gone wrong, but residents and taxpayers “rightly expect to know whether this service has sufficient resilience” and action to prevent the level of disruption being repeated.
Responding, council leader Cllr Oliver Freeston (Reform – Croft Baker) said: “Every year, frontline services will inevitably face some disruption and have done, for as long as the council’s been formed. This bin collection [issue] is nothing new.
“But the difference is we’ve publicised it and been transparent with people and let people know when they can expect to have them done, rather than just leaving them in the dark about it.” He added this had gone down well, stating people “don’t mind bad news, as long as they understand why. We’ve been transparent with them and told them the exact reasons.”
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