Agenda item

Christmas, I’m sure we can all agree is a time where most homes have an unusually high level of refuse.

Sadly, this Christmas residents of Medway have been seriously let down by the Portfolio Holder and Veolia. They’ve been left frustrated and angry by the lack of collection, which was a serious health risk, and by the poor communication of the change of plan, particularly those without access to the internet.

At a time where we, in this chamber, often discuss the public apathy toward politics, the public concern and outrage about this issue has been unprecedented and, in light of this, I call upon the Portfolio Holder to apologise to the people of Medway who have been so badly let down. Local bin men worked tirelessly to resolve the situation and it is now time for him to take responsibility.

But I want to ask Councillor Filmer directly if there has been any penalty for Veolia for this dereliction of duty and, what action will he be taking to ensure that this does not happen again?

“Christmas, I’m sure we can all agree is a time where most homes have an unusually high level of refuse.

Sadly, this Christmas residents of Medway have been seriously let down by the Portfolio Holder and Veolia. They’ve been left frustrated and angry by the lack of collection, which was a serious health risk, and by the poor communication of the change of plan, particularly those without access to the internet.

At a time where we, in this chamber, often discuss the public apathy toward politics, the public concern and outrage about this issue has been unprecedented and, in light of this, I call upon the Portfolio Holder to apologise to the people of Medway who have been so badly let down. Local bin men worked tirelessly to resolve the situation and it is now time for him to take responsibility.

But I want to ask Councillor Filmer directly if there has been any penalty for Veolia for this dereliction of duty and, what action will he be taking to ensure that this does not happen again?”

Councillor Chitty, on behalf of Councillor Filmer, provided a response to this question. She stated that she was aware that officers had provided a detailed response to Councillor Stamp on this matter including an apology and she added her own apology, on behalf of Councillor Filmer, for the inconvenience caused by the delays to local residents.

The plan was agreed between officers and Veolia as the simplest way to overcome the operational challenges presented by the way the Bank Holidays fell this Christmas. As with previous years, Christmas Day (Friday 25 December), Boxing Day Bank Holiday (Monday 28 December) and New Year’s Day (Friday 1 January) were not days that collection crews were contracted to work, nor were the various disposal facilities obliged to accept Medway’s waste.

Setting out to collect 6 days’ worth of rubbish in 4 days was ambitious, admittedly, but possible. A combination of factors meant that the week quickly became much more of a struggle than anticipated, in summary this included:

·         An increase of 300 tonnes more waste and recycling than for the same period in 2014.

·         Veolia’s operational difficulties.

·         Although scheduled for collection on the Thursday, some areas of Gillingham already had vast amounts of waste already out on the Wednesday. The high winds were causing this to blow into the road and so crews took some of it early to reduce the hazard. This knocked them back and compounded on the already delayed schedule.

Most other councils changed their collection days over a 2 to 3 week period; some did not return to their normal schedules until Monday 18 January.  She stated that whilst the plan did not go smoothly, Veolia did complete the Christmas clear up for all three services in just one week. Apart from a few minor clear ups first thing, collections returned to normal schedules on Monday 4 January.

She stated that she disagreed there was a dereliction of duty on behalf of the contractor. Things did not go to plan and there was some inconvenience caused but Veolia’s staff worked hard to recover the situation and completed the challenge in just 4 days.

The calendar for Christmas 2016 would not present the same difficulties. There would be 4 straight days to collect 5 days’ of waste and all disposal points would be open and the planning for this had already started.

She stated that in terms of communicating the schedule to residents, this year additional measures had been put in place to the usual Medway Matters and website notifications.