Bin Days...

[andrew-lynch]

Must have been sleeping through the winter but when did the bin collection day change in from Saturday to every second Tuesday? A major slash there. Can someone please enlighten me?

[paul32A]

are you crazy? it's every friday morning. have you been smoking the wacky backy?

[sophiesofa]

It's different for different roads. Mine is every friday but there's a new (not so new now) pilot scheme though to do with recycling/refuse so maybe you're in it and just didn't realise! Check the southwark website for refuse collection days for your road.

[andrew-lynch]

I'll ignore Paul32A's helpful comment for now and just mention I live in the Dunstans Road area. This from the Southwark Council website as the rubbish piles up:

Selected Address:

DUNSTANS ROAD SE22

Your mixed recycling is normally collected every week on Tuesdays

Next Scheduled Collection:- Tuesday 1 February 2011

Your food & garden waste is normally collected every week on Tuesdays

Next Scheduled Collection:- Tuesday 1 February 2011

Your refuse bin is normally emptied every 2 weeks on Tuesdays

Next Scheduled Collection:- Tuesday 1 February 2011

[ClareC]

Frien Road is on a trial collection service, general rubbish every 2 weeks and then food/garden and recycling collected - sounds like perhaps Dunstans on the same trial....

We are Tuesday's recycling and Thursdays general and garden - only round the corner from you too!

[Pickle]

You are in the pilot area for the new recycling scheme (as are we). You should have received information on this, it started well before Christmas. Basically:

- all cardboard, paper, plastic, glass, tin gets put in your blue box and collected every week

- food waste is put in your brown (previously garden waste only) bin and collected every week

- all other rubbish is put in your green bin as usual and collected every 2 weeks.

We're a family of 4, and have found it works fine for us. We're recycling a lot more than before, and our green bin still has plenty of room in it at the end of the two weeks.

Hope that helps.

[andrew-lynch]

Thanks. That explains it... Painting and decorating this week so lots of rubbish! While we're on it will they take extra rubbish left beside the allocated bins neatly packed up or is there rules about quantity?

[Pickle]

We've found the recycling guys to be really helpful and on many occasions they've taken extra cardboard boxes etc. that we've had due to renovations. If they can't take it, you can ring the recycling line (number should be on your blue bag or bin) and they will collect extra stuff free of charge.

[Floating Onion]

Also if you have bulky items the council will pick them up if you ring or fill out a form on the website. I don't have a link handy, sorry.

[louisiana]

Following on from Pickle's response, I think many people in the pilot extension area (December) don't know they are. Some of us got a leaflet in December saying a pilot was starting in October. So it was widely ignored. And while the leaflet gives the collection day, it doesn't mention anywhere that the day has changed.

So taking that together (wrong month and 'wrong' day of week), I think many have just ignored the leaflet and continued as before. Hence all the recycling boxes (and blue bags) put out on the wrong day all along the street. And when their recycling box is still full when they get back from work, people just think the bin men have failed to show up.

[James Barber]

Hi louisiana,

I'll ask what happened with that leaflet - truly hopeless from what you've described.

[Southwark Council]

Dear Louisiana,

We are sorry to hear that you feel there has been some confusion in your area recently regarding the pilot. We would also like to thank Cllr Barber for bringing this to our attention.

In December we took the opportunity to add more properties onto the scheme and it sounds like your home was one of these. Those properties affected received a letter explaining the December change of service, and a service leaflet which included the new collection calendar referred to in the letter. Because of the relatively small number of properties affected, we felt it would not have been a sensible use of money for the council to print a new set of leaflets, and instead we delivered the same ones used for everyone else on the scheme, which you rightly point out do on a couple of occasions refer to an October start. We are very sorry for any misunderstanding this may have caused. We are though pleased to report that officers have been to your area this week and haven't found any evidence of missed collections or boxes and bins left out on the wrong day.

Kind Regards,

Ian Smith

Acting Head of Sustainable Services

[jimmyraj]

Has anyone living around the Bellenden area (Choumert, Bellenden, Danby etc) noticed that there's been twice weekly bin collections on some weeks - Thursday and Saturday - which seems particularly unnecessary in these cash-strapped times?

[louisiana]

Southwark Council Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Dear Louisiana,

>

> We are sorry to hear that you feel there has been

> some confusion in your area recently regarding the

> pilot. We would also like to thank Cllr Barber

> for bringing this to our attention.

>

> In December we took the opportunity to add more

> properties onto the scheme and it sounds like your

> home was one of these. Those properties affected

> received a letter explaining the December change

> of service,

Dear Southwark Council,

Not only does the leaflet (not prepared for us) not explain the change of date, but neither does the letter that you especially wrote and printed for us! I've read it again and again, and there is no mention of the collection day changing. So neither document says the collection date is changing.

and a service leaflet which included

> the new collection calendar referred to in the

> letter. Because of the relatively small number of

> properties affected, we felt it would not have

> been a sensible use of money for the council to

> print a new set of leaflets,

But you had to print the new letter anyway, so why not include the fact that the collection date had changed in the letter? Just to make up for the misinformation in the pre-printed leaflet, like?

and instead we

> delivered the same ones used for everyone else on

> the scheme, which you rightly point out do on a

> couple of occasions refer to an October start.

In very large bold print on the front.

We

> are very sorry for any misunderstanding this may

> have caused. We are though pleased to report that

> officers have been to your area this week and

> haven't found any evidence of missed collections

> or boxes and bins left out on the wrong day.

Well it's been almost 3 months since the start of the pilot extension, so I would have hoped that was the case by now (though note that there were at least nine boxes placed outside on wrong day on this stretch, this week) but your specially-printed=-for-us letter did not help matters!

Please consider all the information being delivered to the householder at the same time, and how it will be interpreted, and acted upon, together. The whole point is to communicate effectively in order to affect actions by as many as possible.

>

> Kind Regards,

> Ian Smith

> Acting Head of Sustainable Services

[James Barber]

I've asked for a list of all the properties added in December - without any reference or notice ot councillors - but after two days have'nt received such a list.

Sadly it all feels rather shambolic.

NB. and I do think the principle good just the execution is the problem.

[louisiana]

Agreed, James, I'm all in favour, it's just the comms that needs to be sorted out. Which is so often the way with Southwark.