Tag: Waste

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Update to communal collections – is the council in denial?

Communal waste bin in a basement with a large pile of rubbish bags next to it on the ground.

On 8th August I wrote to the Director of City Operations and Cabinet Member concerning the appalling inconsistency of waste collections to flats and HMO’s with communal container bins.
Today I have received a response as follows:

Dear Councillor Knowles

Thank you for your email. Please see response below provided by Head of Service for Waste.

Thank you for your enquiry regarding the collection from communal properties.

As you note in your email the City Council has made a commitment to ensure all residents, regardless of property type, receives a minimum of one collection a week. Whilst this has been challenging to deliver we are pleased to report that circa 97.2% of all flats are receiving a weekly collection. However it should be noted that a lot of communal properties in the City are scheduled to usually receive more than one collection, and whilst we are taking excess in the short-term, this does not fix the problem long-term. With this in mind we are currently reviewing the operational resource we have available to us and trying to identify if there is a means whereby we can provide a more consistent, scheduled collection.

Once we have developed a solution we will share it with Elected Members through the Cabinet Member briefing process.

I hope to meet with the Director at a briefing next week, but in the meantime I have written back the following. It seems to me they are in total denial about what is happening on the ground:


Dear Cllr Mahmood and Richard

Thank you very much for the reply.

I am pleased to hear you are trying to find a way to provide a more consistent, scheduled collection for flats and HMO’s. I hope it will be treated as a priority.

I would really like to see the evidence that 97.2% of all flats are receiving a weekly collection and how that figure has been reached. 

I’m afraid it just does not add up in the experience of residents with communal containers in my ward and I expect other wards across the city. 

I have multiple properties that are being left 3 to 6 weeks between collections and that I am flagging up regularly on behalf of residents.

I also dispute that crews are routinely taking excess waste.  Some crews are doing this but more often the  containers are emptied and the excess piles of waste are left behind.  I attach a photo of one block of flats where this happened only today. It means residents are having to re-fill the bins with the excess, meaning they need another collection much sooner, or more often their management companies pay for the bins to be filled and the stores cleared, which is a charge to the residents.

Most of these properties would manage with one collection a week but that is simply not happening.

Best wishes

Izzy

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Waste collections from flats and HMO’s are not fit for purpose

I have today written to the Director of Operations at Birmingham City Council, Richard Brooks and the Cabinet Member for the Environment and Transport, Councillor Majid Mahmood to ask that something be done to sort out the appalling inconsistency in collection of waste from communal containers of flats and HMO’s. See my email below.
I have received a reply from Richard Brooks office  to say the issue will be investigated and an update be provided as a priority.

Dear Richard and Majid

I have highlighted this before, but can anything be done please, whilst industrial action continues, to improve the appalling inconsistency in the collection of waste from communal flats and HMO’s that use large container bins?

At the beginning of the strike the council communicated that these properties would be prioritised for collections. In my experience the opposite has happened.

Residents in flats report their frustration at seeing a crew emptying their neighbours wheelie bins weekly whilst their communal bin store is overflowing with bags and hasn’t had a collection for weeks.

I am spending a huge amount of my time chasing these collections. This is time I should be allocating to other pressing casework. Many properties only get a collection when the residents contact me and I highlight it to the depot supervisors, despite them reporting the missed collections themselves, often multiple times.

In a growing number of cases management agents for flats are arranging private waste collections and cleaners to clear the bin stores. This is a cost that will be passed on to the residents in their service charge. This is not acceptable or fair, these are not luxury apartments and most residents are already paying high rents and council tax. They are less likely to own a car to be able to  visit a HRC or MHWC and they do not have the storage space to hoard waste and recycling.

I do not have any criticism of the depot service managers, who are excellent and very responsive – but surely some review of management of communal collections has to take place, as this is not sustainable.

Best wishes

Izzy