Council crews have been working additional shifts throughout the week, including Saturdays, to clear the backlog of Christmas and New Year refuse for Bournemouth residents. Ten crews were out on Saturday 27th December, with six vehicles in operation on 3rd January. Extra crews will continue until this coming Saturday, 10thJanuary, to ensure that all household waste and recycling backlogs are cleared.
“Even with these additional collections, on top of the usual rounds, unprecedented additional domestic waste has meant we have not been able to catch up as quickly as in previous years,” said Tony Williams, Chief Executive. He continued, “Our crews so far have focused primarily on household waste and food waste in areas that had received no collections on Christmas Day, Boxing Dar or New Year’s Day. Whilst the vast majority of Bournemouth households are unaffected, we apologise unreservedly to those residents who have had to hold on to their waste for longer than usual.” He added, “No resident will have missed more than one recycling collection and two domestic waste collections and all additional waste will continue to be collected for the rest of this week.”
Crews have been collecting all excess waste left out by households – so far, an increase of 11% compared to Christmas 2013. This has a knock-on effect on catch-up collections as vehicles fill up quicker and need to make more trips to the disposal and recycling sites to empty before returning to resume their rounds.
Cabinet Member Cllr Michael Filer said, “I have urgently met with Officers and am satisfied that all additional available resources have been employed to ensure that residents’ waste is collected as quickly as possible, in particular in those few areas affected by the three bank holidays.” He added, “I have received assurances that the factors involved – namely the 2014 volume of waste across our recycling, food waste and domestic waste schemes – will be fully taken into account when planning collections in future years.”
Some residents who have the means to do so have chosen to take their excess waste to Millhams Household Recycling Centre, which has been incredibly busy over the festive period. Tony Williams said, “We are very grateful to those residents who have taken their own, and in many cases their neighbours’, additional waste to Millhams. This helps to reduce any delays in kerbside collections for those who do not have the means to or time to deal with their waste themselves.”
