Forum Topic

Refuse and Recyling 9-13 April & missed collections

Refuse and Recycling Collections Next Week:Usual collection day     Revised collection day Monday 9 April           Tuesday 10 April Tuesday 10 April         Wednesday 11 April Wednesday 11 April       Thursday 12 April Thursday 12 April        Friday 13 AprilFriday 13 April          Saturday 14 April Refuse and recycling should be left at the front of the property, not on the pavement, by 7am on the collection day.Missed collections:The council is apologising to anyone whose recycling or refuse collection has been missed this week. The number of problems in the first week of the new refuse and recycling contract is unacceptable and our priority is to work with our new contractor, Enterprise, to get the service back to normal as quickly as possible. Extra crews have been working longer hours including Good Friday and Saturday to clear up any missed collections.  Crews will also be out on Easter Monday if required. 

Ealing Council ● 5113d12 Comments

Indeed. The truth is that for many years in this borough officers and ruling and opposition councillors have contrived to ensure that nobody is ever made accountable for any failing, however serious. Any complaints from us the punters are just met by a wall of silence if possible, and abuse of the complainant if not. Councillors always close ranks with each other and the officers to choke off complaints, and opposition councillors prefer to maintain a cosy relationship with the ruling maladministration rather than actually serving their constituents, who they regard as a nuisance to be kept at bay and fobbed off.Be sure nobody responsible for this latest service failure shambles will be resigning or be sacked or otherwise disciplined

Chris Veasey ● 5106d

RosaAs a political person it is not surprising that you look just to the local politician to take the flack. I take the non political angle and look at the thing in a more holistic light which is how it should be seen in this case.Councillors are the ultimate employers of the staff. In old fashioned speak the Council Officers are the servants of the people.Councillors rightly do carry responsibility when something goes wrong, or right even.Council Officers have to do the work of delivering the service. That includes investigation consultation planning implementation and review. Accepted that they may or will be guided and then given approval by their ultimate employer. Only after Council Officers have done all that, they can then give assurance to their Cabinet Councillor that the project is set fair to run.Many senior Ealing staff have been in the job for many years. The Enterprise contract is a very major contract. So that means the top seniors had to get involved and use their long experience of managing this Borough. Their involvement was to turn up all the stones and check that every detail had been covered and convince themselves that 1) They and their own staff had done all that was necessary2) that the Enterprise staff had done the same.Failure to do so would suggest that someone in the Council hierarchy was not fit for purpose and did not have sufficient professional skills to deliver. Not that the exercise exactly needs a PhD to do the job.So although Councillor Cabinet Member Bassam Mahfouz carries the flack because we have to assume he was told all preparations had been done, he is not qualified professionally to do all the leg work. We have to hope he was intelligent enough to look into the main aspects of the contract setup and in this respect he probably failed somewhat as well. But I certainly don’t expect him to have challenged every street arrangement across the Borough. But I do expect the Senior Council Officers to have both checked, and also made sure everything was checked. That was their prime and professional responsibility. Someone didn’t and the people of Ealing were not served. A Cabinet Member was let down, and we have to hope that his politics did not blind him to the task in hand.If this had been a minor issue we would have doubtless had our say. This was a major issue and ongoing problems have still not been resolved. That someone himself needs to come out into the open and speak to the Residents with all the answers, and not play the weasel. It is not for his boss to do this and it is not for Bassam to do this. In the weeks ahead we shall see if this person has the metal to stay in the job.  Ann Pav is perfectly correct. She often is.

George Knox ● 5107d

Rosai think the main point is that officers quide councillors and as such are often the only coherant voice they may hear and so that forces them into choices. I finally had my stuff collected yesterday (8 days late) but had to ask the guys to be careful as the recycling bin was just dumped on the pavement. so still training and other issues. However this same problem has happened previously when a new contractor had taken over and it does call into question the procurement and management of the contract. Previously a truck had arrived at Campbell Road only to realise that it was too big.

Peter Chadburn ● 5107d

Bob,I may be an ex Conservative councillor but I cannot and do not represent the "official view of the Ealing Conservative Party". A cabinet member is however responsible and therefore he/she alone is accountable for decisions that he or she makes. That is where the buck stops - nor with officers. Unless one suggests that Ealing council is run by officers rather than an administration composed by elected representatives. In this case, why bother to hold elections every four years?

Rosa Popham ● 5108d

Is that a personal view Rosa or is the offical view of the Ealing Conservative Party?

Bob Roberts ● 5108d

George,Council Officers can make recommendations but the final decision on whether to accept or dismiss these are taken by the individual portfolio holder and ultimately by Cabinet, which is chaired by the Leader of the council. Therefore it should be Cllr Mahfouz, as the "Labour Ealing Cabinet member for Environment & Transport" and the one responsible for this incredible mess that should have to resign and not the officer.

Rosa Popham ● 5108d

Interesting how the Councillors are taking the flack, when really it is the Council Officer who should should have done all those things in your list.Is the man being protected? Otherwise he should make a personal apology - or leave.

George Knox ● 5108d

Council apologies are not good enough. We need too know if the new company is fit for the job. Our new refuse collecting company is a large Lancashire-based group, Enterprise Group Holding Ltd, Reg No 05982830,with contracts with over 50 local authorities = 25% of population. Its last published accounts (Dec 2010) show a turnover of £846m, annual loss of -£30m or -£3,600 per employee.  2008-9 shows an increase in employees and a decrease in the wages bill. There is no recognised union agreement in the company. In the same year the Directors' remuneration rose from £0.5m to £1.6m.Now, if I were to give a contract to such a company I would need:a)a schedule of work and workers for every street in the Borough;b)a schedule of lorries;c)a penalty clause if the company failed to properly provide a & b;d)a clear statement of working conditions of its Ealing employees;e)evidence that workers' pay is at least the Ealing living wage that applies to all Council employees.In addition, the Council officer in charge of such a massive contract must be accountable publicly for any failure to provide the service he is employed to provide. He must explain to us, his ultimate employer and the paymaster of Enterprise, how he could allow a totally under-prepared company lose on our streets. Will we know how this happened? Who will pay for the extra costs of the clear-up?

Ann Pav ● 5108d

Easter Monday, Campbell Road and still no collection. will we get a rebate on council tax??

Peter Chadburn ● 5111d

Apologies to people who have not have their refuse and recycling on time this week. Mop up crews are out today and Easter Monday picking up missed collections and street cleaning. For the week ahead, residents are advised to put out refuse and recycling a day later than their normal day - as advised at the start of this thread.Recycling picked up together by mop up teams was only to clear the back-log.  These items will be recycled at a materials recycling facility. Recycling should be presented in the containers provided at the edge of your property.  There is very little that can't be recycled - a full list of what can be recycled is available on the recycling pages of the council's website www.ealing.gov.uk/recyclingUnder the new contract, most residents will continue to have their rubbish and recycling collected on the same day (Saturday collections will now be on weekdays) but different lorries will pick up different items. Plastics will now be collected in the same vehicle as green box recycling. For the first few weeks of the contract, food waste will be collected separately from the other recycling. Garden waste will be collected fortnightly on the same day as other recycling collections but on a subscription basis. Full details www.ealing.gov.uk/gardenwasteThank you for your interest and apologies again.

Ealing Council ● 5112d

Could Ealing Council please clarify the situation with regards to cardboard, paper, plastic, glass and can recycling?  The previous contractors used to collect the above as separate items with plastic being collected in different trucks.  Are we now to assume that this is no longer the case and that all the above items are going to be collected and mixed up together in one lorry?  Is this a temporary or permanent arrangement? If permanent, shouldn’t people be told so that we don’t waste time and effort to sort recycling into the different boxes/sacks? Also, as when collected it all ends up mixed together, rather than boxes and sacks, wouldn’t be easier to provide residents with clear bags, as per arrangement for flat recycling collections or like many other councils do? Not only this will save time (both for us and the crew members) but it will prevent the content of boxes/sacks being spilled all over pavements and roads when collection takes place. And finally, why are refuse collectors taking away our green boxes?  Is this a premonition of things to come (i.e. wheelie bins by stealth)? If not can we have a guarantee that this is not the case.

Rosa Popham ● 5113d

Gunnersbury Avenue (Red Route) has been switched to Tuesday from Saturday.  Is this a good idea considering the amount of traffic during the rush hour when they will be collecting?  This was why it was changed to Saturday many years ago.  What does TFL have to say about it?

Charles Campbell ● 5113d