A “perfect storm” of fire damage, broken down trucks and staff shortages has seen rubbish pile up once more across the city.
Rumours of an unofficial strike have been rife – but despite ongoing tensions between council management the GMB union strongly denied they were behind the latest break down in refuse collection.
Instead, both they and the council say a series of unfortunate events is to blame – and last night the council’s assistant director of city environment Rachel Chasseaud apologised and said the service was working to have things back to normal by next week.
As well as a slew of missed collections, City Clean last week removed four residential communal waste bins, leaving residents at the western end of Hove seafront nowhere to put their rubbish.
Westbourne councillor Chris Henry, who has been responding to queries in his ward and across Hove on behalf of Peter Kyle MP, said: “There seems to be a perfect storm causing the current problem: staff absence, broken down trucks and the fire at the depot.
“This is affecting certain areas very hard – for example, the fire has severely impacted the Poet’s Corner collection.
“The broken trucks are the five that can only pick up black communal bins so this is affecting the Brunswick Ward and Central.
“City Clean have been great at responding to calls from us to clear an area, but it obviously can’t continue to operate in this way. Hopefully the staff and mechanical issues are being resolved as a priority.”
David Vincent, who lives in Sussex Road where the bins were taken away last Friday, said one was returned the following day, and the other three last night.
They were taken along with other big refuse bins which are being replaced with new, smaller, recycling and general waste bins.
He said: “We have got lots of residents here who couldn’t walk along to the one bin. One resident collected all their rubbish and took it by car to the waste tip but we shouldn’t have to do that.
“The bin is full and overflowing and it just needs the wind to get up and seagulls to attack and it’s a right mess.
“Why should people have to take their household rubbish to the tip when they’re paying hundreds in council tax?”
Ms Chasseaud last night said: “I’m very sorry that missed collections are having a detrimental effect on the city and are causing a great inconvenience to many people.
“I realise there is a large backlog, and our aim is to have this collected and up to date by the beginning of next week.
“Ward councillors have also been regularly raising concerns with the Cityclean service.
“There have been a number of problems recently including vehicle breakdowns and a shortage of drivers which we are doing our best to address as a matter of urgency.
“This has involved carrying out double shifts, overtime and using agency staff.
“The Hollingdean Waste Transfer Station is now fully open again after the recent fire there, so our lorries are able to tip as normal rather than having to drive to Newhaven – a three hour round trip which badly affected the time we had for other collections.
“I appreciate some residents will have longer term problems with missed collections, and while we have addressed some issues, for others we have more work to do to put things right.
“Please be reassured of my determination to deliver a refuse and recycling service the city, and its residents, businesses and tourists, deserve.”
GMB Sussex branch secretary Mark Turner said: “It’s nothing to do with the union or any action that the workforce are involved in.
“Industrial action is currently suspended. We are still in talks with the council and we are now waiting to see how it’s going to go forward through the process.
“There are still outstanding issues in regards to Acas. We met with them and the council management on 1 August and we are still waiting for the chief executive to put in place what we agreed then.”
Although suspended, the window in which City Clean GMB members can take industrial action has now been extended to March.
Every year the council tax increases, and every year the people get less for their money.
The council is supposed to look after the town, but instead they waste taxpayers’ money on idiotic schemes like Valley Gardens and the loss-making “doughnut on a stick” (the i360), while Madeira Drive is allowed to collapse and council services generally are neglected.
Roads and pavements are no longer maintained or even cleaned. I personally know a turning area that is overgrown with brambles and other vegetation to the extent that it is no longer possible to see where the road ends, and a pavement that is barely passable because of overhanging bushes. Potholes are repaired badly, if at all, and pavements are left to revert to nature while rubbish continues to pile up in the streets.
Every year the residents are expected to pay more for less, so where is all that money going? Brown envelopes? It certainly isn’t being spent on essential services.
Well said – where’s all the money going?
Are these broken-down trucks anything to do with the report in March that safety checks had not been recorded, to the extent there was a possibility that CityClean’s operating licence could be withdrawn? And does any of this have anything to do with an item on the agenda for next week’s Policy and Resources Committee, which concerns that operating licence, but the agenda documentation is marked as ‘restricted’ (i.e. it’s not there for the public to see). There has already been a huge amount of secrecy about the Dave Russell business, what went on after council officials left talks with an agreed plan, according to the GMB, only for other officials to unstitch the plan. We don’t know what action Geoff Raw & Co are supposed to have taken as a result of the meetings at ACAS, but the GMB says they haven’t done it, whatever it was. And meanwhile, the threat of strike action is still live.
If it weren’t all having such a detrimental effect on the City and its residents and visitors, it would almost be a comedy show. How difficult can it be to organise an efficient refuse service? People never had all this farcical stuff going on years ago when a big truck came round and a man hoisted the bin on his shoulder and emptied it in the truck.
It’s well past time that someone at the council, whether that’s an elected councillor or a council official, informed the public exactly what is going on. Agenda pages marked ‘document is restricted’ in the PUBLIC REPORTS PACK are not terribly encouraging or helpful.
Just move out of Brighton and Hove.
Plenty of delightful and well kept villages in very close proximity with easy access to the city And it’s best activities. Without the vagaries, vagrants and dilapidations.