People living in flats in Whitehawk have either not received their food waste caddies or in some cases have received the larger bins meant for houses.
Brighton and Hove City Council’s food waste collections for communal bins and the area that includes Whitehawk started on Monday 9 March, with kitchen caddies delivered the week before.
But at a council housing management panel meeting, resident representatives raised concerns about the process.
At Kite Place, in Findon Road, kitchen caddies were left outside the building. A resident brought them into the hallway but they were left stacked up by a front door.
A Kite Place resident who gave her name as Kate said: “There are no posters, no correspondence. No one knows what to do and when they’re going to be active.
At Robert Lodge, in Manor Way, residents received the larger orange-topped bins for houses even though they have a communal food waste bin outside the building.
At the meeting, on Wednesday 11 March, residents were assured that the estates management team would pick up the uncollected boxes and return them to the food waste team.
Labour councillor Tim Rowkins, the council’s cabinet member for net zero and environmental services, said: “Our food waste roll-out has been a huge success so far.
“Participation has been above what was expected, collections have been reliable and the feedback we have received from residents has been overwhelmingly positive.
“As with any roll-out of a new service of this scale, there may have been a small number of errors made by our distribution contractor in terms of delivering the right caddies to the right properties.
“We will, of course, take this up with our contractor and make sure all residents have the correct caddies.”
Anyone who has issues with their food waste boxes can contact the council by emailing foodwaste@brighton-hove.gov.uk.
I believe residents’ account about the poor handling of the rollout over Councillors Tim Rowkins. The council have made it harder for people to raise complaints and report missed collections with their new ‘app’
And who is the ‘contractor’ I thought the food waste service was in-house. Is it something else the council have contracted out? If that’s the case, who on earth did they not use Magpie. Their loss has been really sad – they offered a really good service for years.
The collection is in-house but the delivery of the caddies wasn’t.
Magpie started a food waste service in 2006. Added to Greenbox for free if subscribed to buying produce.
Food waste to Sussex worm farm.
Worm dirt for potatoes
Worms for fish
Fish and chips back to Brighton
Magpie were too good to continue. Eventually GMB and Labour Group eliminated them bit by bit
I don’t recall the delivery contract going out for tender? Why not just get the workers who are going to be collecting the waste, to deliver the caddies? At least then, if mistakes are made, there is a chain of responsibility. Perhaps that is just too much common sense?
Common sense? This is a council who spent £1.2 million of our money on the basis that they were introducing the food waste and expanded recycling “sooner” rather ahead of the 31 March national deadline, when the reality is that collections are only pretty much starting BY the national deadline for most residents anyway.
The £1.2 million they used could have saved all of the libraries and nurseries they closed. It really is scandalous imo.
The money used was a specific Government grant and could not have been spent on anything else.
No – you are wrong. The £1.2 million was separate to the grant money you are mixing it up with the new burdens government grant.
The new burdens money / government grant was £2.4 million, that could only be spent on food waste preparation. Brighton council believed they had a shortfall in the government funding so they wouldn’t have enough to set up the service with the new burdens money they received from the government. Unlike Worthing council who appealed the shortfall in their funding (who were awarded more), Brighton council don’t appear to have submitted a formal appeal to Defra when they recognised the new burdens money was not enough. They then used money from another general pot of funding.
This FOI shows more info if you want more background:
A letter from former CEO at BHCC says the council planned to appeal the amount (link below), but other docs published as part of the FOI indicate an appeal never happened, despite the council saying to Defra in Jan 2024 that “Following on from the recent announcement of capital transitional funding for the
introduction of food waste collections, we have been completing some high level
estimated costs and find there is likely a funding gap”
(https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/contact_with_brighton_and_hove_c/response/3134746/attach/html/7/Annex%20E%20Letter%20from%20BHCC%20to%20Defra%20regarding%20food%20waste%20collection%20capital%20grant%20Feb%202024.pdf.html)
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/contact_with_brighton_and_hove_c/response/3134746/attach/html/6/Annex%20G%20Email%20from%20BHCC%20to%20Defra%20on%20New%20burdens%20capital.pdf.html
im using my caddy as a flower pot and any food waste still goes in the bin. much less faff!
So you are one of those lazy people who perpetuates selfish behaviour? I hope that you get found out and heavily fined.
When you run out of bags you have to buy them,if you dont want to buy them the council advise to use them as storage as they do not want the bins back.
Food waste goes in the black bin as I have been doing this for at least 20 years don’t any of you people realise this good waste caddy nonsense is only going to increase your council tax but you people of the woke society you can follow like lemmings but I will be putting my food in the bin as I was given
Speaking of lemmings, you know you’re copying far-right narratives by attempting to use “woke” as an insult? Anyway, silliness aside, if your main concern is bills, reducing the climate effect is far more impactful; it’s also not a good argument to make, because council tax goes up by the maximum, so it can’t increase your tax further.
What a complete waste of time and money.
Benjamin, calling someone “far-right” just because they disagree with your views is pretty pathetic. People can have different opinions without being labelled or dismissed like that.
Good thing I didn’t call him far right then. You called him far right. I just highlighted he’s parroting insults thrown by far right, ironically not really expressing an opinion of his own.
Can’t dismiss that which isn’t there.
Benjamin That’s a bit of a technical dodge though, isn’t it? Saying someone is “parroting far-right insults” is obviously going to carry the same implication, whether you use the exact label or not.
If you disagree with what he said, just challenge the point directly instead of trying to tie it to a political label. It’s a weak way to argue and doesn’t actually address anything.
Hope your enjoying the rest of your day
It’s not a dodge, it’s a distinction. But you’re making an excellent motte-and-bailey fallacy. Not one you see too often in human interactions. I also addressed the actual point on council tax, which doesn’t stand, which you have appeared to miss.