News

Complaints flood in over new waste collection

By Laura Herbert
April 04, 2012

Dozens of people have contacted The Wokingham Times to point out errors in the new waste and recycling scheme that was launched across Wokingham on Monday.

Brian Willis, former Conservative mayor of Wokingham town, said: “What a shambles Wokingham Borough Council is in over the new blue bag and green waste collections.

Blue bin bag scheme a 'catastrophic failure'

“I tried to contact Wokingham Borough Council on a totally unrelated matter which was to pay garage rent, but the online system would not accept my input data.

“I then tried to contact the relevant department – all lines busy or if you get through you are number 24 on the list. After three attempts so I give up and then resorted to a fax, but still no-one replies.

“Why the council did not set up a temporary line to deal with all waste queries and leave the main number for everyday problems I do not know, but it seems that everything that our council does is ill thought out and finishes up a total disaster.”

Ian Metcalfe, from Earley, said on Monday: “Disappointed at the quality and size of the bags.

“My wife and I have phoned Veolia several times this morning and nobody answers.

“We ended up phoning the council, which took a long time, as everyone was probably doing the same – they took our details and promised to forward them on to Veolia. This doesn’t fill me with any confidence.”

On Twitter, users reported they have still not receive blue bags, while others reported bags breaking under the weight of rubbish.

One Twitter user, of Hurst Park Road, said binmen visited her road on Monday, but drove away without taking her bag of rubbish.

Other users said animals have torn into bags, leaving rubbish strewn around the street.

Ahmad Izadpanah from Woodley said he has been trying to get through to customers services at the council every day for the past month.

Mr Izadpanah, of Sandford Drive, added: “It is totally incompetent of this council that they cannot manage a simple transition.

“Some blue bags have been delivered but they are of the poorest quality. But it is the quality of the people who are managing our day to day lives. The whole issue is a fiasco.”

A woman from Charvil, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “It is complete chaos. I’m shocked there hasn't been a trial run.

“We had to put our rubbish out on Sunday night and it wasn’t collected until 3pm on Monday.

“We are paying almost £3,000 council tax and we get nothing.

“I think they should abandon this and bring back SITA. I think they need to be embarrassed.”

She added: “We all want to save the environment but this is not the way to do it.”

In the last month Wokingham Direct has dealt with double the number of enquiries, predominantly about the new waste and recycling scheme. Figures reveal the centre received 31,517 calls and 6,816 emails throughout March, and approximately 16,000 calls and 3,300 emails in February from residents lodging complaints or asking questions.

Sarah Barrow, head of customer services and administration, said: “Over the past couple of weeks we have seen a large increase in the number of calls and emails to Wokingham Direct, primarily relating to the new waste procedure.

“On average we are receiving 2,300 calls and 300 emails per day when normally we would receive around 30 per cent of these figures.

“I’d like to apologise on behalf of Wokingham Borough Council if residents and customers are waiting longer than usual to get through to a customer service advisor. We are doing all we can to deal with these enquiries as quickly as possible.

“I would advise residents to visit www.wokingham.gov.uk/waste-changes if possible to see if the information they require is listed online.

“Alternatively, if residents are calling about missing or incorrect blue bags they should email bluebags@wokingham.gov.uk .”

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Most recent user comments 15 of 15

The REWARDS SCHEME has got to be a farce because there appears to be a disconnect between whether you recycle, or just SAY you recycle.

In addition, the registration card received today does not relate to the recyclebank.com web site which does not allow a UK postcode to be entered.

Bandersnatch, Earley
12/07/2012 at 18:48

I have recently had an email war with Peter Baveystock. I pointed out for comparison the system in place in Cardiff - where residents are issued with free bins (or bags if they prefer) - for household, recycling, food and garden waste. By contrast, what do we have in Wokingham - flimsy bags that do not fit bins and a stealth tax on garden waste. This garden waste collection used to be free.

Peter Baveystock is starting to irritate me. He insists on having the last word and is even prepared to come around to demonstrate how to fit the bags. I hope that they are elasticated!!!

Terry Owen, Finchampstead
05/05/2012 at 10:41

@pepe A freedom of information request should get you the blue bag supplier's name and address.

Ivor Biggun, winnersh
05/04/2012 at 12:46

My dealings with the man suggest he will not listen to any views or suggestions.

He knows best, he has made his decisions ... and that is it, nobody else could possibly have a valid point to make ...

Remember to vote on 3rd May it is the first opportunity we will have to be "consulted"

Peter Turner
05/04/2012 at 12:04

i think this peter baveystock is a joker.he has claimed the online question and answer last week was a sucess.well i asked 2 questions and they never got answered.i wonder how many other people had the same response.

right said fred
05/04/2012 at 11:29

These morons should be voted off!!!

pepe
05/04/2012 at 10:40

Email response from Peter Bayerstock regarding my complaint about the way the council is encouraging non ecological actions from people by advsing them to use bleach freely:

"Thank you for your email and I can understand your concern on this matter but have checked this with our Animal Warden and Environmental Health and they advise us that a sprayed diluted solution on the bag will dry very quickly and not cause harm to the surrounding environs.

The sacks we have provided are above the general waste bags available in supermarkets and initial surveys have found that very few of them have split but we will assess them ahead of next years delivery.

Please come back to me if you’d like to discuss this further"

Peter Bayerstock thinks it is ecological to spray bleach disregarding the fact that I mentioned in my email that when the rain falls, the bleach goes in the soil plus no doubt in the air when people spray. If ecology is really the objective of this scheme, then I dont understand why encourage such non ecological action and how do they account for this.

pepe
05/04/2012 at 10:40

I have contacted Mr Peter Bayerstock from the waste team of the Wokingham council. I asked him an explanation regarding the fact that the council is encouraging people to spray bleach on the sacks to keep off rodents. Can you see that the whole scheme is a sham. Bleach is a toxic and greats pollutant but people are being advised to spray it freely on those sacks. Mr Peter bayerstock seems to think that the bleach when sprayed goes ONLY on the sacks and no drops goes in the air or environment. Plus when the rain falls down (which is pretty often in the UK) the bleach sprayed on the sacks stays glued on the sacks and is not absorbed in the earth. In fact he dared to say that the Health Environment team thinks it is totally legitimated and ecological for people to be spraying bleach freely. These morons should be prosecuted and brought to court. They are encouraging non ecological actions and their only motivation is to make a profit out of people by selling their chemical smelling sack. I asked them details about their supplier and the substances used to produce the sacks (the sack has an odd chemical smell compared to those sold in supermarkets) but they are not giving me the information which proves that they have lots of things to hide about. It is people's right to know details of what they are given to use and as well sold. This is called democracy but they are hding these information. How disgusting is that to see all those rubbish sacks on the side of the road since overnight attracting rats, cats etc. How disgusting it is to impose people to keep one sack full of rubbish inside their house for ONE WHOLE WEEK. It stinks and is unhygenic. How disgusting and non ecological is this whole scheme. I dont see why people are accepting this scheme without saying anything.

pepe
05/04/2012 at 10:33

@Peter Turner

I completely agree with you there. I can only imagine the level of flak that the poor council employees manning the phones have taken over this, a scheme in which they had no hand in devising but are only told to implement.

Meanwhile, of course, the councillors who dreamed up this madness have gone into hiding in their criticism-proof bunker, vanished without a trace.

Matthew S. Dent, Wargrave
05/04/2012 at 08:42

Yes I feel sorry for those that have suffered due to redundancies or having to answer the calls/emails/twitters and explain poor decisions they had nothing to do with ...

Peter Turner
05/04/2012 at 08:35

Unfortunately the council have listened to the voice of the customer - the council taxpayer. I wonder what will happen when these customers vote in the local elections?

Why oh Why oh Why, Reading
05/04/2012 at 08:17

Although many of the existing bin men were taken on by Veolia I understand that there were also many redundancies. This matter does not seem to have been highlighted in any of the recent reports.