Since the new waste contract came into force on the 2nd April the waste collection service many people receive throughout Cornwall has not been the best if we are honest. However, in many cases, Cornwall Council is taking the flak when truth be told it is not all the council’s fault. You see, the council does not collect the waste, this is done by a private company who tendered and won the contract.
The company in question is Cory, and they have been collecting all waste in Cornwall since the 2nd. For my Division of Porthleven and Helston South a few streets have been missed on last Wednesday’s collection. I might have understood a reason for this is the adjoining streets or whole areas of Porthleven had been missed, but this is not the case. As those adjoining streets had their rubbish collected. So there is no logic as to why streets have been missed off.
From calls I have received and people stopping me in the street I have reported those areas that have been missed at last weeks collection. I am well aware I might not have the full list of streets missed and want to make sure these streets will not miss out again. So, feel free to contact me and tell me, or better, you can click this link HERE which takes you to the ‘missed collections’ page of Cornwall Council’s website.
I know many people have also tried to call the council, and are waiting for a long time for the call to be answered. I like most of you hate to be kept waiting listening to some awful music, or dead silence wondering if you are still connected. But lets pause for a second and not get too frustrated and understand why you might be waiting for longer than expected.
You see last Monday, the council received over 22, 000 call’s when on a ‘normal’ Monday the council would expect to receive roughly 3,000-5,000 calls. That is over five times the normal demand. Extra staff have also been put on, but it is not just about staff. Another reason is BT will not give the council any more phone lines to be able to answer the calls. Again, the council’s hands are tied by a third-party. In the last two weeks, Cornwall Council has received over 70,000 calls to the waste service.
I know it is easy to knock the council, and when it is deserved, it should be. However, I feel in this case, Cornwall Council is getting a lot of the flak when in truth is it other parties that are to blame. This is not trying to make an excuse for Cornwall Council, but I thought it was only fair to clarify a few points.
I hope the teething problems will be sorted this week, and people will be happier with the current arrangement.
I’m confused as to what you’re saying here. We should be sorry for the council because they let the tender to an incompetent company?
How hard is it to drive down the right roads (or at least to notice when you’ve left a road uncollected?
If it’s not the council’s fault why
- are they issuing briefings through the press which contradict their own leaflets
- organise bags _BEFORE_ the start of the new system – there are loads of us with no bags STILL and no idea whether they’re supposed to have been delivered, we’ve been missed out, or they’ve blown away
- didnt’ they heed the warnings that Cory might not be reliable including IIRC a cautionary tale from another council.
- apparently ‘forget’ to include dog bins
- did they make recycling more difficult
- did they make green waste a fly tippers dream
- didn’t they make the waste collection MORE vermin proof not less?
This ‘improvement’ to the service is appalling and those of us in Penwith have got a particularly raw deal _again_ we’re paying a lot more council tax than we used to – and facing additional charges on top for what was free and also getting a worse service. County Hall really do seem to have it in for Penwith.
Many of us who contributed to the ‘consulation’ (which wasn’t as it changed nothing) warned that the proposals had a lot of perversities.
Though a lot of the problems have come from things which weren’t in the proposals (so we couldn’t even make comments which would be ignored) – like watching tipper equipped lorries carefully pulling plastic bags out of wheelie bins (and splitting them in the process) then putting them in the crusher (together with garden waste and some ‘recycling’. Where in the proposals did it say wheelie bins wouldn’t be tipped – or that we now couldn’t put half of our recycling in our existing boxes?
‘Reusable’ plastic bags for recylcing – in a windy county with epidemic levels of seagulls – who could possibly see any issues with that?
As to green waste! What a waste! Many companies _make money_ from their green waste collections – selling the compost back to gardeners and allotmenteers – Cornwall council in their green wisdom discourages green waste recycling which we all know will increase flytipping costing the council still more lost revenue.
I know that I will not be voting for any cornwall councillor who voted in favour of this ‘improvement’
Though as usual – kudos for actually discussing this, more than the Council website lets you do!