People in Carmarthenshire have been left with a familiar sight over the new year period – bins lined up on the pavements outside their homes for a week as scheduled waste collections have not taken place. The issues have impacted people living in several areas of Carmarthenshire, reaching far and wide across the county, including Carmarthen, Llanelli, Newcastle Emlyn, Llangennech, Llandovery, Llandeilo, Pembrey, Whitland, Kidwelly, and Pencader.
The reasons given for the delay in collections range from “resource issues” to “vehicle breakdown” and “access restrictions”. However, some residents have been told that they put out too much waste over the Christmas period and therefore it was not possible for it all to be collected. In a number of areas the council explained: “Unable to complete due to volume/quantity of waste presented for collection (Christmas/new year – excessive waste)”. For the latest Carmarthenshire news, sign up to our newsletter here.
Furthermore, residents were sent e-mails which read: “We have received feedback from the refuse supervisor that due to the volume of recyclable waste present over the Christmas period the refuse crew were not able to collect all of the refuse for your area. Please leave your refuse presented at the normal collection point and the refuse crew will endeavour to return to collect as soon as possible.”
Despite this, Carmarthenshire Council shared a post on social media on Thursday afternoon (January 2) asking people to “please recycle as much as possible”. The authority also apologised and insisted that collections would be completed on Friday (January 3). Tellingly, comments were switched off on the post, although several people reacted to the message with an angry face emoji.
One resident, who lives in the Johnstown area of Carmarthen, questioned what his monthly council tax outlay was actually spent on, saying that collecting rubbish on time was “not rocket science”. He said: “Our collection was set to be done on December 27. They took the food bin but the blue bags have just been left. The blame was down to a ‘vehicle breakdown’ but there were several areas of town given that same reason, so it’s unlikely.
“Then I heard that the volume of recycling left out was too much for the bin collection crews to collect, that was in an email to some residents in another part of the county. What are we paying council tax for if basic services are not being done? The Christmas and new year period always generates more rubbish and recycling, it’s not rocket science. The council haven’t handled this well at all.”
Dealing with bins being left outside their homes for days on end is not a new thing for residents across the county. In late August last year the council sent thousands of letters to residents informing them of a new collection date for that week. But for many that new collection date came and went with bags of waste lined up on kerbs for a full week. One resident called the situation “shocking” and described it as a potential “environmental hazard”, with some complaining that black bags as well as blue recycling bags were late being collected. This time the issues surrounding collection are mainly concerning recycling and food waste, although some areas have seen hygiene and nappy waste go uncollected.
The council has been asked to comment further on the issues faced over the Christmas and new year period, and why delays regularly occur on or around bank holidays. The authority admitted last year that it had faced problems with waste collections surrounding bank holidays for some time. “We have experienced disruptions for bank holiday collections of waste for a sustained period of time as staff are not contractually obligated to work overtime on bank holidays or weekends, meaning we cannot provide certainty of service to our residents,” said Edward Thomas, cabinet member for transport, waste and infrastructure services at Carmarthenshire Council, last September after the issues faced during the end-of-August bank holiday.
“We have listened to our residents and this bank holiday we piloted a new approach, which included direct communication with impacted residents with the aim of improving our service by having Monday collections distributed throughout the working week. We will be undertaking a review of this pilot to understand challenges, problems and areas for improvement in readiness for the next bank holiday collections.”
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