Rubbish collections could switch from fortnightly to weekly by next July in Brighton and Hove if all goes to plan for the council.
Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet members are being asked to approve spending £1.3 million to prepare the environmental services team for the shift to fortnightly collections at a meeting on Thursday 16 July.
The money would be spent hiring vehicles and recruiting 17 extra staff including mechanics and a team to remove “side waste” – overspill rubbish left beside or on top of bins – as well as to clear communal recycling points.
The council’s cabinet is also being asked to agree that officials should start preparing for a fortnightly service. This would later be subject to a final decision – also to be taken by the 10 senior councillors.
The proposals next week follow a decision in January when the council’s cabinet agreed that officials should explore options to reduce rubbish collections from weekly to fortnightly because recycling collections were more frequent and citywide food waste collections were starting.
In January, Labour councillor Tim Rowkins, the council’s cabinet member for environmental services and net zero, said that Brighton and Hove was one of just 62 councils out of 317 still collecting household rubbish weekly.
The latest report to the cabinet said: “The service has experienced significant historic issues which have resulted in it operating sub-optimally over a sustained period.”
Earlier reports spelt out in more detail some of those issues, most notably when the environmental services team was known as Cityclean.
An independent report found evidence of a “toxic culture” at the Cityclean depot, in Hollingdean, including bullying, racist and sexist abuse, intimidation and violence.
The latest cabinet report said: “Considerable progress has already been made to improve performance, including ongoing culture change, the introduction of digital technology, increased recycling opportunities and the delivery of a new separate food waste collection service.
“But there continues to be challenges in delivering the quality of service to which we aspire.
“The improvements so far have increased the options for recycling, including the acceptance of a wider range of materials.
“This should result in a significant reduction in residual waste, thereby creating a strong foundation to take forward further change, although the lag on the waste data means we have not yet been able to see the extent to which this has happened.
“The reliability of collections needs further improvement to ensure the change to fortnightly residual waste collections can be introduced successfully in 2027.”
A waste composition survey earlier this year found that 45 per cent of rubbish – or 2.36kg per household a week – could be recycled. Almost 30 per cent was food waste and 15 per cent counted as mixed recycling.
The council has been collecting more than 100 tonnes of food waste a week but almost half of the material currently placed in rubbish bins could be recycled or put into food waste collections.
More than 1,600 residents have already shared their views through surveys and at engagement events, with the results indicating that people would support fortnightly rubbish collection if they were reliable and if the council responded quickly when collections were missed.
A decision is expected at a council cabinet meeting which is due to take place at Hove Town Hall at 10.30am on Thursday 16 July. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast.
The only thing that has improved is the dodging of the issues. Renaming CityClean is not an achievement, just a rebranding of the incompetence inherent in the management of this service. Support the workforce and the job will get done.
The workforce were a joke. Bunch of old men refusing to retire and bullying anyone who dared to come to work and do the job properly. Thankfully most of them have been sacked now.
an App for reporting is essential
Please please please replace the recycling boxes with actual bins. Sick of my stuff blowing doythe road