The rubbish recycling contractor was required to update Bexley Councillors a year
after taking over the contract from Serco. They did so on 18th October 2022 and
once again there was a slide show.
The company was pleased that the traditional Bexley Summer bin strike lasted for
only two weeks this year. CountryStyle staff are now paid at comparable rates to other local contractors.
Two vehicles are now dedicated to collecting missed bins.
Labour Councillor Ogundayo (Thamesmead East) asked how new vehicles will help
with Assisted Bin Collections and noted that some operatives did not seem to
know the way to some addresses. There was an admission that the missed bins
target was itself being missed but I didn’t hear an answer to the Assisted Bins question.
Regular teams and their accumulated knowledge is seen as an important priority
but can be affected by holidays and sickness. Bins are collected up to one metre
from the property curtilage. Bin replacement remains an issue and there are “bad days”.
Councillor Hinkley (Labour, Belvedere) said that Fix My Street
reports are still not being handled or updated correctly. It was accepted that
some street cleaning and fly tipping complaints did come via FMS and “things
sometimes went wrong”. There are about 18,000 FMS reports annually and more need
to be automated to take the load off of staff who inevitably fall behind.
Councillor Davey thought the bin collection service was pretty good and attracts
few complaints to his Inbox, however overflowing litter bins are a problem.
Bigger bins are on the way to affected locations, space permitting.
Councillor Lucia-Hennis said that in her Crayford ward
it is obvious that the use of food bins has reduced since they were discouraged
during Covid. Education via leaflets and personal contact takes place to combat
the problem. The cost of living crisis is tending to reduce the amount of food waste.
Councillor Ward Willis (Crook Log) said that weeds in the gutters was becoming a
problem. She had noticed that food waste was being tipped into green bins but
assumed that this was transferred into a separate vehicle compartment. Her
observations were confirmed but she thought the use of a green bin might confuse residents.
Councillor Slaughter (Sidcup) said that repeated bin misses and the delivery of
new brown bins seemed to be a problem. Once again the issue was seen as a
priority and there has been some improvement in the statistics. There was no
answer to the brown bin question.
Councillor Betts (Falconwood & Welling) said that some emptied bins are just
slung in the general direction from which they have been taken and end up
blocking the pavement. How is that monitored? The Chairman drove the meeting on without waiting for a definitive answer and
Councillor Ball (Labour, Erith) was encouraged to ask if anyone actually looked out for weeds
growing in the gutters or assessed the amount of bin contamination?
There was no simple definitive answer
any of the questions except that supervisors do get out of the office to monitor
staff attitudes.
Note. I had to cross the border into Greenwich to find weeds in gutters.