Councillors say service levels have since improved
Black bins and recycling containers on a pavement in Bedminster(Image: Alex Seabrook)
A spate of binmen going off sick over Christmas led to a drastic drop in rubbish collections across Bristol. Some parts of the city suffered much more from binmen skipping their roads than others, including the neighbourhood represented by the councillor responsible for recycling.
Westbury and Henleaze, Redland, Knowle, and St George West have suffered the highest rate of missed collections per population since January last year. “Missed collections” refer to when binmen miss a house, a few houses or a section of road “without an active decision”.
Another way Bristol Waste measures its failures is with “dropped roads”. This is when binmen actively decide to skip a whole road, due to problems like a vehicle breaking down, staff shortages, or parked cars blocking trucks. These figures haven’t been broken down by ward, but in December almost 4,500 roads were dropped.
Over the Christmas period, hundreds of roads were dropped. But service levels have since improved, according to one recycling boss. An update on bin collections was given to councillors on the environment policy committee on Thursday, May 29.
Ken Lawson, head of waste at the council, said: “Performance has significantly improved since Christmas. It’s positive but it’s still not really where we want it to be and there’s work to be done. But it is getting to a place where we’re starting to see a good service again.”
A “widespread outbreak of sickness” affected the team in the two weeks before Christmas. Binmen were less able to catch up on dropped collections, as Saturdays were a normal collection day during the festive season. Problems with bulking facilities at a recycling depot also exacerbated problems, as well as an increased amount of rubbish that people were throwing away.
Changes since Christmas include improving how the trucks are maintained, and reminding binmen about “service delivery expectations”. In the longer term, a new fleet of trucks will be bought, replacing the current ageing 65 vehicles. This will include some narrow vehicles to help navigate Victorian streets with parked cars, which often block bin lorries.
Another plan is painting double yellow lines on some tight corners, where trucks are often blocked. This will restrict parking and prevent cars from becoming an obstacle. Councillors across the city will be asked to suggest locations for new double yellow lines at hotspots. These will need Traffic Regulation Orders, a cumbersome legal process which takes about a year.
The rate of missed collections has been the worst in Redland, a ward which is represented by Green Councillor Martin Fodor, chair of the environment policy committee. Wards in the north of the city tend to be hit hardest by missed collections and dropped roads as their bins are collected towards the end of the week.
Cllr Fodor said: “We need to acknowledge the immense efforts and pressures on both Bristol Waste and all their crews and management, on the client side [council staff] managing the contract, councillors who have had the complaints, and customer contact centre staff who get the calls.
“The actions to improve performance are really impressive, but we know we need more. The issues for long-term improvement are really important and we’re going to have to focus on those now, to make sure the service is as reliable as it should be.
“But it has certainly improved immensely, and I know that from my own caseload of dropped roads and missed collections. It’s been a long journey. It’s taken about 18 months since the first rerouting made things start going wrong in my ward. We’re finally seeing the improvements.”
A new waste bulking facility opened at Avonmouth on Wednesday, May 28, which will increase the speed at which Bristol Waste can offload recycling from rubbish trucks. This should prevent the long queues at lunchtime of trucks waiting to empty collected rubbish, before they can go back out to neighbourhoods and complete their rounds of bin collections.
Labour Cllr Kye Dudd added: “I’ve not received a complaint for a while now, whereas previously without fail it was every week. Not just one, there were several every week about missed collections in Southmead on a Friday.”
Black bins could soon be collected once every three weeks, instead of fortnightly. Over 16,000 people responded to a consultation on changing how often general waste is collected. Almost two thirds disagreed with the plan to switch to a three-weekly collection. Half of respondents said they needed extra space in their recycling boxes, as new containers are also planned.
A taskforce of councillors from all political parties is considering the responses, before suggesting what the council should do next. Labour has called on the Greens to rule out a three-weekly collection, and said the administration “needs to listen to the public”. In response, the Greens said no decision has been made yet on changing how often black bins are collected.