What Rother is saying about the recycling fiasco...

At Monday night's Overview & Scrutiny Committee, Councillors were presented with a report by Tony Leonard, Director of Services, which gave an update on the rollout of the new Waste & Recycling Collection Scheme.

The report noted that there had been a number of difficulties encountered on several of the rounds across the District, which had resulted in residents not having their waste or recycling collected on the previously appointed days, this coupled with areas of the District still not having received their boxes or information packs, had created many problems, and many residents frustration had been increased by their inability to get through on the special help lines which the Council had set up.

Members of the Committee noted the huge amount of work that staff of the Council had had to pick up as a result of shortcomings on the part of contractors, and accepted that the prime task at the present time was to get the system properly settled in, and clear the backlog of calls and enquiries which have been generated in the first week of the new scheme.

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It was agreed that the first meeting of the Waste Management Working Group would receive a report from the Director setting out exactly why these problems had arisen, and examining the roles played by contractors and others in this situation.

Councillor Christopher Starnes, Chairman of Overview & Scrutiny Committee, commented that "clearly it is of concern to me and my colleagues that many of our residents have faced disruption and indeed disappointment and annoyance as a result of failures in the rollout of the new service in the first week, however we need also to recognise that in something over 70% of the whole of the District, the rollout has gone very satisfactory and those residents have been extremely pleased to join in with the new system. I anticipate that we will still have a degree of problems to face over the weeks to come, however I am confident that the officers will soon clear the backlog of calls, and the Council is working closely with Verdant to rectify all mistakes and we will move forward and run what I believe will be one of the most successful schemes in the country".

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