Rubbish piling up in Cheltenham after cancelled waste collections
RUBBISH has been left to pile up in the town's streets after waste collections were cancelled.
Bin lorries were scrapped across Cheltenham and the Cotswolds after the area was hit by heavy snow last weekend.
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FED UP: James Hiatt, of St Paul's Street North, Cheltenham, with his uncollected rubbish
But residents have now questioned why rubbish has still not been collected by the end of the week after most of the snow and ice has melted.
Many have been left confused over when their rubbish will now be removed.
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James Hiatt, of St Paul's Street North, said the situation was farcical. He added: "It is totally clear of snow here and it was clear on Thursday as well.
"Looking at Royal Mail or delivery companies, they are providing services that are similar without any apparent interruption – if they can do it, why can't the council? It just seems ridiculous.
He added that he was angry because Tewkesbury Borough Council had started to resume its collections on Thursday morning.
Peter Keys, of Leighton Road, said the waste collection teams needed to toughen up. He said: "Everywhere else seems to be running collections.
"The supermarket is doing deliveries, the milkman is bringing milk to my doorstep and the postman isn't having any trouble getting through.
"Why is it that our council is the only organisation which cannot battle through the snow?"
Jackie Sallis, 46, who lives in Coniston Road, added: "I don't know what is wrong with Cheltenham.
"They must be on another planet. It will be another fortnight before they will be around again and that is absolutely not good enough."
Collections in Gloucester did not stop completely while services in Tewkesbury returned to normal on Thursday.
Ubico, the company which collects rubbish on behalf of both Cheltenham Borough Council and Cotswold District Council, said that while workers have been off their hours have been banked.
These will then be taken into account when they work extra shifts to catch-up next week. It also stressed that it had started clearing black bags in the town on Thursday. Workers will be working on Saturday doing a similar job.
Beth Boughton, waste and recycling manager at Ubico, said it had been unsafe to reinstate full collections as some areas of the borough were still very icy.
She said residents whose collections have been missed will be able to present additional waste or recycling on their next collection day.
Waste collections in Cheltenham and the Cotswolds are due to resume as normal on Monday.
OPINION, P8
29 Comments
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by Bongotron
Wednesday, January 30 2013, 10:43PM
“Perhaps we should all park our bins outside the council offices....
All this bin nonsense has really messed up my body clock. I usually make my breakfast just as the refuse heroes turn up with a jolly smile on their faces early on a Tuesday. However since my last collection (3 weeks maybe) I have been unable to eat as I'm still technically waiting for my breakfast 3 weeks ago. On top of this, I can't sleep as I'm sick with worry in case somebody slips on a small patch of ice whilst carrying my bin to the expensive bin emptying device.
But I've struggled on, braved the arctic elements in the spirit of a true adventurer, and SOMEHOW managed to get to work (on a bike- tricky).
Please can somebody empty my bin- I know longer no what day it is, And this will soon result in me losing my job (which just about covers my council tax that I pay for somebody to NOT COLLECT MY BIN)
Help. Is it Monday?”
by pipboy-2000
Tuesday, January 29 2013, 11:20PM
“I bet that they managed to collect the rubbish from the Council building somehow despite the snow & ice. I don't expect much from my Council but for £150 a month they could at least get that right.”
by elgoog
Monday, January 28 2013, 5:13PM
“http://tinyurl.com/ab6mbkr”
by elgoog
Monday, January 28 2013, 5:09PM
“CBCschmuchs, http://tinyurl.com/ab6mbkr”
by justbecause
Monday, January 28 2013, 9:04AM
“CBCschmucks - I agree with you entirely. My business deals with local authorities on a daily basis, we pay through the nose for every service and its totally substandard, they are always on holiday, on flex time etc it is very very difficult to get anything done. It used to be the case that civil servants were paid less than the commercial sector, but had better conditions, with working hours and pensions etc. Now it seems then are paid the same as the commercial sector with the argument they have to pay to get the caliber of staff, but they still have all the benefits. Having cake and eating it, and being big fat cats comes to mind!”
by CBCschmucks
Monday, January 28 2013, 7:40AM
“You can't make it up can you? Its amazing in this day and age that council management cant make sound and practical decisions that keep a town the size of Cheltenham flowing smoothly. The fact we as tax payers need to have rubbish removed is a necessity, and rubbish removal men who cant even be bothered to put the mug of tea down and shift their eyes from the Sun to do their given job because of a little snow should be a sackable offence. That goes double for management. Why do we pay our Council tax when we get nothing but incompetence?”
by justbecause
Sunday, January 27 2013, 7:15PM
“its elf n safety innit! I am not saying that from the top to the bottom the council workers are swinging the lead, but the rest of cold Europe seems to function very well in the snow. The evidence speaks for itself really.”
by EllJay1
Sunday, January 27 2013, 4:27PM
“Thomas1996 - The information is on TBC website, Waste and recycling page:
http://tinyurl.com/a4nh498”
by nikonman2010
Sunday, January 27 2013, 3:46PM
“we took ours to Swindon road tip and there were alot of people doing the same ive now completely cleared the green bin the food waste and both recycling boxes all launched into the non recyclable
Even the staff at the tip agreed it was a complete and utter joke and a case of mis management by the clowns at the top still what else do we pay £1500 a year in council tax for some plastic plod who wonders round giving it the Barry Large and some clown sat at a desk on £70k plus inhouse "expenses" making decisions about how can we fleece anymore off the spending budget after all they got to send officials from the council on overseas jollies to show our counterparts what a tinpot country we are
Tell me in Sweden Finland Iceland etc does the rubbish pile up and pile up due to the weather do the kids all have a week off school due to the weather ....................exactly”
by FaceBerk
Sunday, January 27 2013, 11:20AM
“Oh wot a sad place this town is turning into..!!
Full of negative people taking every opportunity to have a go at someone else's dilemas.
If your that concerned, why not :-
a) ensure you vote for the right council in the first place or
b) apply for the same job yourself, assuming you've never had problems doing your own or
c) offer to help out where you can or
d) maybe attempt to lug that 18" cube of rubbish a few hundred yards to the re-cycling centre along a clear road.
There's quite a few of us who do exactly that and we live outside the town centre.”