Bin collections - update

Despite extensive talks with representatives from Unite, the City Council has been unable at this point to reach an agreement over issues that have been raised by the Trade Union about terms and conditions of employment for refuse collection staff.

The Council is continuing to talk to the Union with a view to reaching a resolution, but regrettably, there will be some industrial action that will lead to disruption of collection services on Monday 11th and Friday 15th August. There is also a temporary ban on overtime working.

If you are due a collection either today or Friday, please put your bags, boxes or bins out as normal.

If they have not been collected by the end of the day, please take them back onto your property and put them out for the NEXT scheduled collection. 

That will be next week for rubbish and two weeks for either green waste or paper/glass/tins/plastic recyclables

There is no need to report a missed collection.

Sorry for any inconvenience - the council are trying to come to an agreement with the unions.

Bins update

A quick update on the bins situation.

Following the strike action last Thursday, all depots prioritised collecting black bag waste and on emptying litter bins in the busiest spots.

Our depot at Redfern Road was particularly badly hit by a lack of drivers and they have been playing catch up ever since. Bear in mind that as a city, we make 200,000 collections each day across the city and across all types of waste. The Lifford Lane depot have sent crews over to assist, but Redfern still has a couple of black bag rounds outstanding and a good deal of recycling and green waste collections.

They are making every effort to catch up on outstanding work

Strike action - Thursday 10 July

As you may have heard, local authority staff will be taking strike action on Thursday 10 July. This is likely to affect bin collections, so here's the advice on what to do if you have a collection scheduled for that day.

Please put your green bins, black or green sacks or recycling boxes out AS NORMAL.

If they have not been collected by the end of the day, please LEAVE THEM OUT for collection. It will be cleared over the weekend or sooner if possible.

There is no need to report a missed collection

Sorry for the inconvenience, but the rubbish will be cleared as soon as possible.

Bins update

I'm told that bin collections in Acocks Green were brought up to date over the weekend by overtime working - there were crews out on Sunday clearing the backlog. If there are any outstanding collections, please do let me know.

Overall, volumes remain high, so this might mean that there are still the odd collection that gets delayed. Generally, missed collections will be picked up on the next working collection day.  Normally, it does take us two to three weeks to recover from the Christmas shutdown and the additional volume, so we seem to be a little ahead of the game.

Volume matters, because the more we all throw out, the longer it takes for the crew to put it in the wagon and the more often the wagon has to be emptied.

We've perhaps got away with it compared to last year, as we haven't had the snow and ice to contend with, but then January is still young!

Bin collections update

As usual at this time, the collection rounds for the binmen are particularly heavy - the Christmas and Boxing Day holidays added an extra week's collection to those who normally have their collections on Wednesday or Thursday and that goes on top of the extra waste as a result of the holiday.

Those are the only two bank holidays that we don't collect rubbish as normal and it usually takes a couple of weeks to catch up. Last year was worse because of the snow and ice, but it looks as though we might get away with just the wind and rain at the moment.

The crews are doing all they can to minimise the amount of rubbish not collected each day, but the sheer volume makes it difficult. Some parts of Acocks Green are about a day behind on collections, although there may be pockets where it is a little worse. Crews are working this weekend to clear the backlogs and they will prioritise black bag collections over the recyclables - but all will be cleared.

If there are any patches that are more than a day late, let me know and I'll make sure it gets cleared.

Christmas Bin Collections

Just a reminder that - as in previous years - there will be no collections on either Wednesday 25 December or Thursday 26 December. Services will return to normal on Friday 27th December.

If you normally receive a black bag refuse collection on Wednesday or Thursday, your next collection will be on Wednesday 1 January or Thursday 2 January 2014. 

If you are also scheduled for a recycling collection on either Wednesday 25 December or Thursday 26 December, your next recycling collection will be on Wednesday 8 January or Thursday 9 January. 

The Household Recyling Centre at Tyseley will be open as normal over the Christmas period if you have to get rid of any large amounts of waste in the interim (except Christmas Day and Boxing Day).

Bins and snow update

A quick update on the bins around Acocks Green.

All black sack collections are now up to date, although some dry recyclate collections are still outstanding. We'll be catching up with those as soon as possible.

Elsewhere in the city, we've put garden waste and litter crews into helping clear the backlog.

Crews have been issued with specialist foul weather kit, including boot chains, to help keep them working safely.

Bins and snow update

Just a brief update on where we are with bin collections in Acocks Green. The crews have cleared all black sacks due for collection. There may be some dry recyclate (plastics and paper) out there, but that is mostly on rounds further towards Kings Heath. There are some outstanding patches of green waste bags that need to be collected and those should be done on Monday, weather permitting.

I'll post any more information as I get it.

Acocks Green Bins Update

Apologies to those of you who have had delays to your bin collections over the past few days. Unfortunately, the bad weather meant a huge backlog of rubbish to be collected and it has taken until now to get back largely on track. Some areas that have been raised with me - Francis Road, Gospel Lane, the Stockfield Estate and the Warwick Road - have been cleared of black bag waste today. Crews will be working late tonight and across the weekend to clear remaining rubbish and it is hoped that black bags will be gone by close of play on Saturday, with outstanding recyclable collections cleared by the end of Sunday.

In this situation, collections are placed in priority order with black bag waste being the highest priority, given the likely contents.

There will be a few problems outstanding as we start next week, but we should have the collection back on track by about Wednesday. Additional street cleaning resources will be put in place over the next week or so to tidy the ward up.

Again, apologies, but we are getting back to normal now.

Bin collections

We've done our best to maintain black bin bag collections on the main roads across the ward and Acocks Green, but many of the side roads have simply proved too treacherous for the heavy bin wagons and our crews to operate safely across the week. As the weather conditions have changed over the weekend, normal collections will resume this week and missed collection will be collected as normal, although we will try to prioritise missed recycling collections from last week.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused last week, but the weather was exceptionally poor and persistent and we have to put the safety of the public and our crews as our top priority.