The latest PR blurb from TDC about waste collection has now utterly confused me. Whilst I accept that a little bit of snow in Thanet has affected Collections, it is interesting to see that last year's Christmas & New Year Programme, (see pic above) had less days of no collections and at least took blue (recyclable waste) away with black bins. Mind you TDC did come in for stick about treating recyclable waste as the same as land-fill waste!
This year in contrast has been reduced to a fiasco by a number of factors. More time off for the waste collectors ; no Sat collections nor on Wed 30 and Thu 31 Dec which to the best of my knowledge are not public holidays; no blue bins with black bins and of course a smattering of snow.
TDC's PR team and its Press Releases have become risible and perhaps the staff are superfluous to requirements as they invent fatuous quotes for cabinet members. The latest offering today about bin collections is contradicted when you ring TDC. So when will the debris of the Biggles Household's Festive Season be removed? Well it seems that my blue bin might be emptied on Fri 22 Jan (last empty was Fri 18 Dec) and that my black bin will be emptied this Friday 15th Jan; or it might be emptied sooner, so do I leave it on the pavement?; and any overflow of household rubbish wont be picked up according to PR 'blurb' but customer services says it will if I leave it out. All very confusing.
We can always blame a smattering of snow,I suppose, for this chaos and be charitable about Cabinet Member Shirley Tomlinson who clearly spends too much time as a member of The Planning Committee, instead of keeping a closer eye on her own brief.!
UPDATE - 14 JAN 2010
My thanks to Clrr Chris Wells for this update.
For those on Thursday/Friday collections its BLACK BINS this week; next week and put your BLUE BINS out on Thu 28th and Fri 29th. (With a bursting Blue Bin that was full on 26th Dec the Biggles household has had to suspend recycling for a whole month, until Fri 29th)
20 comments:
My blue bin was last emptied on December 8th so I was expecting it to be dealt with tomorrow. Well, I did until I spotted the press release saying 'tough luck, chum'.
What happens next week then? Is it blue then when that puts the whole sequence out of sync or is it black bin again as it should be or...?
Does anyone know what on earth is going on?
What do we pay rates for? OK, there was snow last week and some people did miss out on black bin or was it black bags or what is Cllr. S. Tomlinson doing? Does she care that we, having carefully separated our rubbish, are probably going to put the recyclables into bags and dump in the black bin just to get rid of it?
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The advice for those of us, including myself, who have missed friday collections, the most affected, is to put out anything and everything this friday, including side waste in black bags alongside black lidded bins, and it should all be collected. Your recycling can go as landfill this week or be stored to go with the next blue bin lidded round.
Yes of course there has been some confusion with the weather at the worst possible moment, but there is always the tip. Personally I have already been 6 times over the holiday period!
Apparently the info was put out in a press release and on the TDC website on Monday. OK, how many folk look at the website or would have seen the press release?
They expect people to be mind-readers but it seems next week is, surprise, surprise....black bin again.
The powers-that-be expect people to take the recyclables to the tip if they want the stuff recycled but...
expect most to put the recyclables in the black bin even knowing it'll go to landfill.
Well, I know which option I'm taking.
Yes, in the black bin and too bad if it festers away in a landfill site. I'm fed up with the way this council treats us all.
TDC's own calender that some households got says next week is...blue bin but can we trust that piece of information?
I'll put both out and see what happens. Why should we have to take stuff to the tip when the council is supposed to collect? The whole point of collecting recyclables is to save on the carbon footprint in taking items to the tip. Six times, Councillor Wells? OK, if you're going that way anyway but for me it's a considerable journey that I wouldn't be making for any other reason.
Confusion reigns. We were due to have a black wheelie bin collection last Thursday which was cancelled due to the snow. Just seen the dustbin men drive down the road at break neck speed collecting any loose black sacks, which don't include mine seeing as I didn't think the whole of Ramsgate wanted to see my festering rubbish on the pavement. Which begs the question, will I see them again on Thursday?
Thanks for the clarification for Friday collections, Cllr Wells.
The next question is that as Friday 15th was meant to be blue, will Friday 22nd be black as programmed, or blue? Or do we get back into re-cycling routine on 29th Jan with blue? Having carefully sifted and sorted for my blue bin, I want its contents re-cycled!
what a load of rubbish about rubbish being collectedi find it sad that this is all people have to moan about there lives must be very sad it was xmas
Black bin, blue bin whats the point anyway?-this years recycling target by TDC IS 27per cent,which could be a sore point if you were to get a fine for putting refuse in the wrong bin and it finished up in land fill anyway.
Christmas period is not the issue here but the fact a bit of snow led to the crews being sent home rather than be kept/called back to duty.
Why not employed them on Saturday to catch up?
The other factor is those of us who carefully recycle now have to keep the stuff somewhere.
Another factor is our streets haven't been swept for months and months and all the extra rubbish put out is just going to sit there until eventually it's collected.
We need to know what's happening next week.
If you like piles of rubbish sitting in your street you're the one with a sad life, mate.
Bertie, is this Our Leader coming on again at 14.43, perchance? If so, he has plenty of space perhaps to store his refuse or he can take it to the tip on his way around Thanet on official business telling us how 'Thanet is open for business'.
E-mail from TDC telling me if I'm due for a blue bin next week that's what it'll be. Trouble is I don't know if it's blue next week as no-one has ever given me a calender.
how sad peoples lives must be having to moan about waste bins,and when they are picked up do people not think that waste collection men should have time off for xmas how sad must there lives be but then if you are labour that is the only thing to moan about when you read all what the labour party have done for the uk and for thanet
yes you are right nothing so think on
15:51, waste collection or lack of it causes distress to many elderly Thanet citizens who try to re-cycle and as a generation, do their 'civic' bit! Many of them are now utterly confused about what to put out when and do not have the luxury of a trip to the tip. No one begrudges bin-men a holiday but they provide an essential service to the community and perhaps it is the parsimony of their employers , TDC, who have not been prepared to pay extra for collections during the holiday period. On the subject of Labour Govt and Thanet; where do you you think all the money has come from for TC, Dreamland and regeneration in millions?
And for all the new school buildings and for the high-speed train and for the new buses and for the bus passes and the free swimming and for the new QEQM and the new doctors' surgeries and for the heating allowance and........you get the picture.
The recycling routine restarts on 28/29 January for those properties affected, there will be black bin and side waste collections this week; black bin next week, and blue bin 28/29 January. Not ideal but we all should now know where we are.
last year tdc spent £18,000 on overtime payments for the Christmas period waste collections, this year they decided they had to reduce it by " heyho i know lets just not bother to collect the rubbish".
Another pp contract by tdc where they didn't take into account all the costs.
Thanks for that Cllr Wells. Will update item.
09:54, whilst I am always pleased to see TDC saving money, they need to consider the impact on the electorate of a bin collection system that collapses under the strain of not paying overtime to catch up and the weather conditions forecasted. Its interesting how rubbish not being collected has hit national news level! My only thought is that Thanet, that escaped the worst snow problems has the same collection snafu as areas hit with deep and prolonged snow. Hopefully, a rethink for next year's Christmas Holiday period will occur.
No, it's BLACK bin this week (week ending 15th.). BLUE bin next week. BLACK bin the week after.
So, to recap:-w/c 18th. BLUE so at long last, all the recyclables get collected after six weeks, assuming you haven't put it all in the other bin, taken to the tip or burned in the garden.
w/c 25th. BLACK bin and so on.
That came from the officer in charge of refuse collection and I got the e-mail from his department four times unchanged so it must be correct, surely.
Apparently there's a calender on the TDC website as well as the one we were all delivered but most of us forgot to keep safe.
BUT, they say we mustn't put our recyclables in black bags or cardboard boxes but in clear plastic bags and they will be collected. Otherwise they'll get put in with the non-recyclables.
I don't know what the scheme is for those not on wheelie bins but I assume they get their normal collection.
Ah, well it seems there are two distinct routes so Broadstairs is Round A and Margate Round B so if you live in Broadstairs it's blue bin next week but Margate it's black next week.
Well, that's the theory anyway so Cllr. Wells was right for those on Round B but not for Round A.
Hope that makes sense.
Thoroughly confused.....as much sense as anything TDC does.
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