Contingency plans should have been put in place earlier to keep recycling collections running during industrial action, say Lib Dem Councillors on Bath & North East Somerset Council.
Strikes and an overtime ban have affected collections since the start of the year and recycling has not been picked up in some areas since Christmas.
Councillor Tim Ball (Lib Dem, Twerton) said: “I have had reports of rats getting into the recycling, as well as litter and debris being spread across the streets. Local people are furious about the mess.”
“Some residents have started to put their recycling in with the black bagged rubbish, which is being picked up normally.
“The Council must get a regular service running soon, and actively work to encourage a return to recycling.”
Lib Dem Group Leader, Councillor Dine Romero (Southdown), added: “It’s not good enough for the Conservatives to use the excuse that this crisis is not of the Council’s making. Some people have not had their recycling collected since Christmas, but it is only this week that the Council has stepped in to try and tackle the backlog.”
“Notice of industrial action must have been given and a ballot would have taken place, so why weren’t residents warned and contingency plans put in place earlier?”
“In 2013/2014, 72% of local waste was recycled, which was a 30% increase from 2009/2010.
“We need to keep reducing the amount of rubbish going to landfill, to help protect the environment and save public money – each tonne of rubbish not recycled costs £80 in landfill taxes.”
In a statement on Wednesday, the Council said they are doing their utmost to resolve the current difficult recycling situation, “which is not of our making”.
As the situation currently stands, around a third of residents are having their recycling collected on time.
However, due to the ongoing go-slow and overtime ban by Kier employees, only around 50% of the scheduled collections take place each day. This, along with the impact of further strike days – when less than a third of Kier staff will be working – means that the potential for backlog is increasing.
It is anticipated that the majority of Kier staff will be on strike today (Friday 15th January).
The Council has 7 crews out in an effort to reduce the backlog and has so far collected almost 40 tonnes of recycling in less than three days, including 2 tonnes of food waste on Wednesday alone.
In their statement, B&NES Council continued: “The Council will endeavour to ensure that everybody will have their recycling collected within two weeks – the majority of which we anticipate collecting within one week. However, it is hard to predict the exact impact on collections that sustained strikes will have.”
“The key message from the Council is that we ask residents to keep putting their recycling out on their scheduled collection day and leave it out if it is not picked up.
“If you do not want to leave it out overnight, please take it back in after 4.30pm and put it out before 7am the following morning. We will collect your recycling and food waste as soon as we can.”
“The Council has diverted as many existing staff as available onto the recycling effort, but cannot physically reduce the backlog of waste any faster.
“The Council understands the inconvenience that many residents are facing. We are striving to extend collections to cover the weekend.
“However, due to restrictions on how many hours existing staff can work, the Council is keen to hear from members of the public who would like to express an interest in joining the Council’s collection crews on a temporary paid basis – especially HGV drivers with a clean Category C1 licence.
“If you think you could help then please get in touch with us via the online form on the Council’s website: www.bathnes.gov.uk/RecyclingUpdates or call 01225 394204.”
Recycling workers at Kier Ltd in Bath and North East Somerset are striking today (Friday 15th January) in their ongoing same job, same pay dispute. It is the second day of stoppage this week.
The Unite members are staging a picket at Unit 4, Ashmead Road, Keynsham BS31 1SX between 06:30 and 14:30 hours.
Unite, the country’s largest union representing the 45 striking workers, is urging Kier Ltd to drop its union-bashing rhetoric and get back around the negotiating table to achieve an equitable settlement.
The union’s members are unhappy that workers delivering exactly the same service for Bristol City Council, just six miles away, are earning £2 more an hour, with extra crew.
The company’s latest three-year pay deal was rejected by members as it does not go far enough to address the £2 an hour difference in pay between themselves and workers doing the same job at the nearby Bristol site.
The union is concerned that Keir will not be around to honour any pay deal as there are no guarantees that it will still be operating the contract to 2017.
The workers, operating out of the Keynsham depot, voted overwhelmingly for strike action with 86 per cent in favour and 100 per cent for action short of a strike last month over the pay inequality issue.
Unite regional officer Jerry Pickford said: “Kier Ltd is fiercely fighting a rear-guard action to defend this glaring pay inequality. It now needs to drop its bully boy tactics and start negotiating seriously to resolve this dispute.
“Loaders at the Keynsham depot are paid just £7.81-an-hour, £2 less than workers doing the same job at a site just six miles away.
“The three-year pay deal does not give our members a wage they can live on, which can only be addressed by fair and equal pay.
“Our members are angry that they earn £2 less an hour for delivering exactly the same service with a two person crew, while workers in nearby Bristol earn more but operate a three person crew. If you do the same job you should get the same pay.
“After the appalling way our members have been treated, they have no faith that the company will honour even its latest inadequate pay offer.
“Kier is promising a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow with no guarantee that it will stick around to honour the pay offer over the next two pay reviews.”
A Kier spokesperson said: “We are working very hard to ensure collections are made but please bear with us as we now face, under strike laws, the restriction that we have to operate the service on the remaining crews.
“We are not allowed to implement any additional resource during the strike or to cover over time.”
