'Heads Must Roll' Over Wheelie Bin Fiasco
Councillors' 'inundated' with complaints even before new collection starts
The new wheelie bins have been rolled out throughout the borough and Ealing's Councillors say they have been inundated with a variety of complaints. Residents haven't received any bins, others have been left with the wrong size and some in flats have been given too many.
The problems are thought to have been aggravated with the bank holiday - collection wasn't a day later as usual to facilitate the switchover, but many people didn't realise and rubbish was left out.
Conservative group leader and Hanger Hill representative, Councillor Gregory Stafford, says: '' As expected the introduction of the Labour Council's unwanted wheelie bins has been a shambles. Over a thousand bins have been wrongly delivered or not delivered at all and complaints are rising.''
Northfield ward Conservative Councillor, David Millican, says he has had scores of angry people contacting him: '' Many have called the bins “monstrosities” saying they did not realise the bins were so large. Others said the bin will fill up their front gardens. I spoke with one elderly lady who was almost in tears as she would have to dig up plants in her front garden to make way for the bins. Most people phone the council and just want to talk to somebody but can’t.
''We’ve had numerous complaints about rude customer service staff not engaging properly with residents. We’ve had residents complaining about hanging on for 15 minutes. The problems have been aggravated by changing the collection regime such that they now collect on Bank Holiday Monday. As this was not widely advertised, and presumably lost in the mass of info about the new wheelie bins, many people left their black out on Tuesday, only for them not to be collected. Following our intervention the contractor undertook a follow upon Tuesday, which has helped somewhat.''
Liberal Democrat Councillor, Gary Malcolm, has described it as a fiasco and says: "Heads must roll. The politician in charge needs to resign. At last count 122 people have contacted me to complain about the new wheelie bins. They are too big, they delivered the wrong type, many people do not have room for the wheelie bins and some (including myself) have seen their household and recyclables left uncollected for at least two weeks. There were reports today of sets of bins not being able to be closed properly which means foxes will get inside them. Labour-run Ealing Council should apologise to all residents for their failures."
An Ealing Council spokeswoman said: ''Making sure that everyone has their new bins in time for the service change is a huge operation and we are still delivering them this week and over the weekend. Where people have been given the wrong bin we have promised to come back and change them and we are advising people to use the bin they have for the time-being.
''We are distributing 157,000 bins ahead of the new service starting, to date we have had 212 people contact us to say they have been given the wrong bin which is 0.1% of total deliveries. Wheelie bins are sturdy and should last 10 years but if they are broken or lost there will be no charge for a replacement bin. Due to the way the bins have been stored some of the lids are a little stiff and may take a couple of days to loosen up and close properly.
''Anyone who believes they have been given the wrong bin should contact customer services on 020 8825 6000.''
2nd June 2016