No bin collection due to strike action

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  • #68415

    johnhoppy
    Participant

    If you have a couple of lawns to cut and hedges to trim the green waste certainly becomes an issue. The council workers have been screwed by the governments (London and Cardiff) but it doesn’t make sense to bite the hand that supports you.

    #68412

    BenjaminM
    Participant

    I am not and never have been a Council employee so my comments are not made because I am likely to be a beneficiary from any resolution to the situation.
    The Unions representing public sector workers have tried heavily, through attempted dialogue to resolve the impasse. But, because of the intransigence and recalcitrance of the Government, have been unable to do so.
    Yes, the strike may hurt some but it may also show how reliant we are on those services to a point where popular opinion gets behind the protestors to bring about change, rather than denigrating them for the actions that they have been forced to take.
    Judging by the news article on Wrexham.com regarding the support from shoppers, passers by and motorists this morning, it would appear to me that the vociferous dissenters form part of an extremely small minority and are more than likely, statistically insignificant.

    #68418

    Katia
    Participant

    With regard to the comments from Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude in the House Of Commons regarding proposed tougher anti-strike laws.
    ” When unions go on strike its hard working people who suffer the consequences most. Vulnerable people that depend on public services, parents who are forced to take a day off work or arrange child care because their local school is closed.
    These strikes risk damaging those who are working hard to get this country moving again. “

    That is pretty insulting to public sector workers !

    The tv news as usual focuses on bins not being emptied and parents having to arrange baby sitters. The government highlights that budgets have to be balanced and little money is in the pot for raising pay. Nobody seems to be arguing that plenty of money is collected for the pot – but the distribution of money needs completely reworked. Many are paid too much, maybe more deserve higher wages. The ones at the bottom should have higher pay funded by a reorganisation of pay scales further up the food chain.
    Apart from street lighting having your bin emptied twice a month is one of the most high profile things a council provides – if not sorted the council will soon find people get very angry – very quickly.
    I support our bin collectors having a higher % pay rise funded by pay freezes and reviews in other areas.
    They may well be able to get away with other things but not emptying peoples bins is a PR disaster.

    #68407

    wrexview
    Participant
    #68424

    DerekJackson
    Participant

    I agree this is not an attack on front line staff but more about a Public Sector management in the UK that has not manged service delivery and budgets effectively leaving a situation were there are massive cuts in services and stagnant wages.

    This thread started about refuse collections which is why people have not strayed (in most instances) – the broader issue of services generally and the impact on everyone’s lives — families with children changing their own working practices to look after children who can’t go to school, Day Centres closed for the elderly and vulnerable, need I go on– why should the ordinary person suffer because of someones request for a pay rise.
    How did the strikes hit the management and Council Members within a LA who are part of the overall mismanagement of the Public Purse stretching up to the Welsh Government and beyond to Westminster. Managers where in work and Council Members have not lost a days allowance so no personal financial sacrifice compared with those on strike.

    #68419

    Katia
    Participant

    @wrexview 13930 wrote:

    Council becomes first in England to collect household rubbish every THREE weeks | Mail Online

    We think we have problems!

    Note that Bury is a Labour controlled Council.
    The Clash and Eric Pickles no doubt agree….Give ‘Em Enough Rope.

    #68421

    Ferret
    Participant

    @Katia 13939 wrote:

    Note that Bury is a Labour controlled Council.
    The Clash and Eric Pickles no doubt agree….Give ‘Em Enough Rope.

    I never thought I would read the words “The Clash and Eric Pickles no doubt agree”. Can’t see our Eric as the all night drug prowling wolf somehow. Then again he does look a bit sick in the sun…

    #68420

    Katia
    Participant

    Not sure if this has been linked to already on Wrexham.com but WCBC website has been updated.

    I think Wrexham Council should be praised for doing this.

    Industrial Action Thursday 10th July 2014 – Council News – WCBC

    ” Update: Refuse collection arrangements following the Industrial Action on 10 July 2014

    Collections on Friday 11 July are for the normal FRIDAY collection only. The residual [blue/black] bins not collected on 10 July will now be collected next Thursday, 17 July.

    For those green waste bins that were due to be collected on:
    •10 July – the next collection day will be 24 July
    •17 July – the next collection day will be 31 July

    Please remember that you can take your green and residual waste to any of our three Household Waste Recycling Centres in the meantime. “

    #68417

    PhilWynn
    Participant

    As per the opening post, WCBC were not planning to make any additional collections this weekend and were happy to leave general waste bins uncollected for four weeks in affected wards i.e. the collection on the 10th would be made on the 24th. This is reaffirmed in today’s Daily Post.

    This arrangement was totally unacceptable to me and a number of fellow elected members, whom I have been liaising with. As such a compromise collection has been circulated on the Council’s web-site and on our Council’s help-line tel no 298989.

    Unfortunately a high number of general waste bins and recycling boxes were still on the Brynyffynnon pavements at tea-time today, so the message clearly hasn’t got through to residents to take their bins in until Thursday.

    Having door knocked quite a number of properties late this afternoon and phoned numerous ward residents I’m hoping this will now happen, but sadly I’m not holding my breath on this as there are over 1800 households in Brynyffynnon so not an easy task.

    The new collection arrangement will mean the next green bin day in the ward I represent will now take place on the 31st of July rather than the 17th. This means food waste and used nappies, which the council encourage residents to recycle in the green bins, will be left un-collected for four weeks. In my mind this clearly is a health hazard so I shall be asking senior officers on Monday to reconsider this decision.

    All I can do is apologise for what has turned into a “dogs dinner” and reassure my constituents that I will not leave this until we have a satisfactory outcome and a review of how we have got this so badly wrong, so it will not happen again.

    For those of you who may think I am overstating the case then please feel free to walk the Bradley Road area tomorrow, as there will still be a number of stinking bins left on the pavement and those that have been taken in by their owners will be proving a health hazard, be it in their rear courtyards.

    I agree in a perfect world residents should recycle perishable waste in their green bins but sadly this is not always happening, hence the health hazard issue.

    For the record my comments are in no way a criticism of our Council’s front line staff or any staff who chose to go on strike. In fact I am amazed what staff are still managing to do at the coal-face, whilst being asked to do so with ever diminishing staff numbers and resources.

    Cllr Phil Wynn

    PS you may have guessed I am not a happy councillor at present.

    #68406

    Liam
    Participant

    @BenjaminM 13916 wrote:

    One day! That’s all it is – and it affects no more than 10% of the population of the Borough. It is hardly likely that we will need the services of the Pied Piper of Hamelin or be overrun with cholera or bubonic plague, is it?
    I notice that the comments made only reflect the impact that it may possibly have on the individual writers. No comment has been made regarding the other services that will be disrupted, probably because it doesn’t affect them!
    Since 2010, pay in the public sector has either been frozen or limited to 1% whilst in the private sector pay has risen by somewhere in the region of 3.5%. For that very reason alone, I have every sympathy with the day of action that is being taken.
    All the individuals on strike today have families to support and bills to pay at a time when inflation is running at somewhere in the region of 2 1/2%.
    As an aside, it may add to the ‘aroma’ of Wrexham (as discussed on another thread).
    Last time I looked, an aroma is a pleasant assault on the olfactory sense so some writers may have an exceptionally pleasing experience over the next two weeks! Whatever turns you on I suppose.

    For once I’m with BenjaminM on this!

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