Councillors calls for better monitoring of missed bin collections

A councillor who has complained about missed bin collections in his ward is frustrated at the lack of monitoring.

Labour councillor Gary Wilkinson has now asked for a more robust approach to working out when staff miss rubbish and recycling collections.

The Central Hove councillor said that he was shocked to hear that Brighton and Hove City Council’s refuse and recycling service Cityclean kept no records of how often collections were missed.

In his ward, some people had repeatedly reported missed collections for months at a time.

When Councillor Wilkinson asked for a breakdown of missed refuse and recycling collections on ward by ward, he was told that the council did not have the information.

If collections were missed, the council advised residents to use the Report A Problem form on the council’s website.

And a Cityclean official told him that missed collections were monitored using an “antiquated” paper-based system, making it challenging to track missed collections.

A modernisation programme is under way at Cityclean and includes tendering for in-cab technology to communicate with drivers about missed rounds. But this system is at least a year away.

Councillor Wilkinson said: “There is no effective monitoring system in place despite months of complaints of missed collections from residents and councillors.

“The administration may be working on a programme that will take up to 12 months to deliver. There appears no urgency to adopt a fit for purpose monitoring system now.

“This is a huge issue for our residents. Word of mouth or scraps of paper being left on desks is no way to run a refuse collection service.

“Nor should it fall on our residents’ goodwill to sort by reporting missed collections.

“It is crucial that we are able to identify patterns or hotspots in missed collections across the city today, not in a year’s time, in order to provide a better service to our residents.”

In neighbouring Goldsmid ward, another Labour councillor John Allcock has spent more than six months dealing with missed collections at Devonshire Court in Wilbury Road.

And during the bin lorry drivers’ strike last October, Labour councillor Nancy Platts said that she was shocked to learn from workers on the picket line that there were no guides to rounds to help staff covering a different round.

Before the strike, the former council leader walked around East Brighton ward with a Cityclean manager and found many of the closes off Whitehawk Road had not had their recycling collected for weeks and even months.

Independent councillor Bridget Fishleigh, who represents Rottingdean Coastal ward, raised concerns about collections in Saltdean.

The council said that Cityclean monitored missed collections through reports on the council website, emails and phone calls. These reports were followed up with the operations team who contacted the drivers covering the missed area.

Drivers also reported issues when they could not complete the round due to vehicle breakdowns or problems with access.

The council added: “Any repeated missed collections are investigated by the respective team leader and operations manager to ascertain the reason for the repeated missed collection and action is taken to address this, such as requesting single/double yellow lines if there are access issues, or the affected street being moved on to a different round.

“Where there are repeated missed collections, we would always aim to make temporary arrangements until a permanent solution can be found.

“Customers also have the option of raising a formal complaint if they are unhappy with the service they are receiving, such as when collections are repeatedly missed.”