Preston bin collection problems explained

The problems that have beset bin collections in Preston in recent weeks are partly due to a delay in the delivery of the new vehicles needed to pick up food waste, the leader of the city council has said.

Matthew Brown has issued a lengthy statement apologising to the “small minority of residents” affected by disruption to all types of rubbish collection since changes introduced last month following the biggest overhaul of Preston’s waste service in 14 years.

The wider shake-up coincided with the start of weekly food waste collections in the city on 20th April, as part of a national rollout required by government legislation.

The authority took the opportunity to revamp the rest of its waste removal arrangements at the same time – but the move has seen households in several parts of the city left with their bins unemptied when they were due to have been collected.

Cllr Brown said the late arrival of the specialist new lorries was beyond the authority’s control – and that they were now expected “imminently”.   He added that other “short-term issues” had resulted from the scale of the changes being implemented.

However, one resident – whose street saw its recycling pile up and go uncollected for five weeks – said the raft of reasons being offered up for the problems encountered felt like “a red herring”.

The new system – which the city council said would make collections more efficient – is built around a schedule which means every address should have its bins emptied on the same day within the usual fortnightly collection cycle, alternating between general waste and recycling.   The change saw collection days alter for the majority of households, many of which had previously had staggered collections.

Meanwhile, the two recycling bins provided to Preston properties – one for paper and cardboard, the other for glass, metal and some plastics – are now collected by separate vehicles at different times of the day, having previously been emptied in one go by the same wagon.

Addressing the collection delays encountered over the last month, Cllr Brown said:  “These changes have been essential to comply with food waste collection legislation and to ensure the service is able to effectively collect waste from a rapidly-growing city.

“During this period of change, we are aware that some residents may have had issues with their waste collection service and we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused. These issues have been caused by a number of factors.

“As food waste collections are being introduced nationally, demand for food waste collection vehicles has been extremely high. Despite ordering our vehicles in plenty of time, we did not receive the full number of specialised vehicles that we were expecting. The late delivery was due to issues outside of our control.

“We have therefore had to use alternative vehicles, which aren’t as suitable and have slowed collection times. The remaining specialised food waste collection vehicles are due to be delivered imminently.

“Any change on this scale does take some time for collection crews and residents to become familiar with the new rounds and collection times – and these factors have led to short-term issues.

“Finally, the service was also impacted for a few days by a fire at the waste transfer station on Riversway which led to all the waste we collected having to be taken to Farington, near Leyland, which again delayed crews and reduced efficiency.

“We collect waste and recycling from 72,000 households every week – and we would stress that the disruption affects only a small minority of residents.   We apologise to residents for this inconvenience and are working hard to put things right.”

Bin collection crews have been operating of a weekend in an attempt to try to get back on track after town hall chiefs acknowledged that they were receiving an unusually high number of missed bin reports following the changes.

However, a resident of Armstrong Street in Ashton – who did not want to be named, but has previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service how he and his neighbours have been affected – said he was perplexed by the extent of the problems.

His recycling was not emptied for more than a month and was starting to overflow, while his first two scheduled food caddy pick-ups were missed, causing the new bin to begin to smell. He has also witnessed a bin lorry arrive in his street, only to leave without taking anything away.

He said:  “I appreciate Cllr Brown’s explanation of the difficulties they’ve had – but it seems to me these are a bit of a red herring. We were without a recycling collection for five weeks.

“Anyway life’s too short to stay cross. I wish them good luck with the new rotas and hope most of all that the street cleaning and fly-tipping lads don’t take their eyes off the ball as it’s getting messier and messier all over the city.”

The city council is reminding residents to ensure that their correct bins are left out by 7am on the day they are due for collection.

An online postcode checker enables householders to see which of their bins are due to be emptied when, throughout the year.

Every address should also have received a printed calendar, but the authority says it was let down by the private company contracted to deliver the documents, meaning some properties did not initially receive one.  Council staff later hand delivered the leaflets in areas known to have been missed out first time around, but Cllr Brown says it is “possible” some dwellings never got one at all – potentially adding to the confusion.