Residents reassured action is being taken to clear refuse

COUNCIL chiefs in Carmarthenshire are reassuring residents that action is being taken to clear the backlog of missed rubbish collections across the county.

 

A number of complaints have been received by the council from householders who have experienced problems with their refuse collection during the past three weeks.

The council apologises to residents for the disruption and is working with the trade unions to resolve the situation with the refuse collectors as soon as possible.

In the interim, arrangements have been put in place for additional resources to be brought in to ensure the council can fulfil its statutory duty to collect domestic waste.

It is intended to clear the excess rubbish on the streets by the end of next week; however, if householders have concerns in relation to ripped bags and vermin please contact us so that we can arrange for them to be removed as soon as possible.

The council would like to make it clear to residents that there have been no changes to health and safety, refuse rounds or any other working conditions for refuse workers which would result in missed collections.

The council has agreed a set of new terms and conditions with all its employees, which has seen a single system of pay implemented.

As part of this, the system of ‘job and finish’, whereby refuse collectors would leave work as soon as they had finished collecting, has also been abolished. The refuse staff were the only group of staff who were able to do this and it was often two or three hours early each day.

Director of Technical Services Richard Workman said: “We cannot make special arrangements for refuse collectors, as this would be unfair on all the other staff who work their full contracted hours each week.

“Whilst we hope to resolve this matter soon through ongoing consultation, we will not leave the situation continue as it is and will consider all means to ensure continuity of service.

“Again we appreciate residents’ patience and co-operation through this period and apologise to those that have been affected. We hope to return more or less to normality sometime next week.”

Residents may notice that their refuse is collected later than usual from now on. Any backlogs of rubbish will be cleared, however, if there are concerns please contact Carmarthenshire Direct on 01267 234567.

If residents wish, waste can also be taken to any of our Household Waste Recycling Centres located in Whitland, Llangadog, Wernddu (Ammanford), Trostre (Llanelli), and Nantycaws (Carmarthen). If anyone is concerned with the delay in the collection of waste food, then it would be acceptable for the waste food to be placed in black bags. Blue bags can also be taken to the Household Waste Recycling Centres, except Llangadog. For further information, including opening times, please visit www.carmarthenshire.gov.uk/recycling

Chief Executive of Carmarthenshire County Council, Mark James has issued a statement in relation to the refuse problem, click here to read it.