‘Concerns’ over bin collection performance

In a service performance update published this month, Rother District Council says it has seen a recent increase in the number of missed bin collections.

And the report adds that the percentage of missed bins is 60 percent higher than neighbouring local authorities - Hastings, Eastbourne and Wealden - who also subscribe to the same collection scheme with Kier.

The report was presented to members of the Joint Waste Committee, which includes representatives from all four local authorities.

It said: “Overall performance on waste/recycling collections is a concern.

“At the last meeting an increase in missed bins was reported for the post-Christmas/New Year period.

“While this backlog could have been expected, Kier’s response to clear the inevitable backlog from this period took longer than expected.

“However there was a reduction in missed bins through February and March although disappointingly, at a slower rate than experienced by the other Partners.

“Even more disappointing was that there was an increase in numbers in April to 245 per 100,000 collections.

“At the present time the missed bins across Rother run at a level approximately 60 percent higher than those experienced by the Partners and a similar proportion above the Partnership average at 140 per 100,000.

“To add to frustrations a number of repeated misses that we thought had been resolved last year have re-emerged and, in spite of efforts to understand why this should be so, no clear information has been provided as to why this is the case.”

It added: “Missed assisted collections have followed a similar performance path.

“Following a drop from the post-Christmas/New Year period significant increases emerged over March and April.

“Again this is unacceptable and similar efforts are being made with Kier to recover performance.”

But it acknowledged that street cleaning standards had “improved significantly”, and recognised that Kier was taking action to address outstanding matters.

Kier was praised for its beach cleaning.

Responding to RDC’s comments, Kier said: “We were disappointed and surprised to hear that Rother District Council has concerns about our waste and recycling collections in the area. At the most recent contract meeting we were pleased to report a drop in the number of missed bin collections, as well as an improvement in the performance of the contract as a whole over the past six months.

“We are continuing to strive to improve the service with the re-routing in Rother, which is being carried out in order to further reduce missed collections in those more hard to reach rural locations.”

The report said Kier has improved its performance on missed collections in Hastings and Wealden.

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