3:29pm Tuesday 23rd June 2009
By Emily Allen
THE controversial shake-up of South Oxfordshire’s rubbish collection service has been hit by “teething problems”.
South Oxfordshire District Council launched its £8m system on June 8 in an effort to radically improve its recycling rate.
It aimed to double the amount of waste — 44 per cent — being recycled.
But the council has apologised to householders who had been inconvenienced and promised to iron out “teething problems” by the end of the week.
Each home was issued with one black and one green wheelie bin for bi-weekly collections of non-recyclable household rubbish and recyclable material.
The district also became the first in Oxfordshire to offer a weekly food waste collection.
This week, some residents said they had still not received bins or sacks and had spent hours trying to contact contractor Verdant on its helpline number of 03000 610610.
Many had still not received the cornstarch bags which line the new kitchen caddys.
Others who paid £32 a year for an opt-in garden waste service suffered week-long delays to collections Tim Day, 59, of Croft Road, Wallingford, was still without rubbish sacks — despite repeated attempts to contact the council.
He said: “I phoned them and they promised they would be delivered by the end of the week, but they didn’t arrive, so I phoned them again.
“They said they would be with me for June 8 in time for the start of the service. I informed them as I had no bags for my rubbish, I would put it out in black bags.”
He added: “I had to go up the road and give them to the binmen to take away. I no longer phone the council, I’ve given up with them.”
Siobhan Atherstone, 46, of Wilding Way, Wallingford, claimed she tried calling the helpline for four hours one morning, and suffered delays to her garden waste collection.
She said: “They should have rolled it out town by town and dealt with the problems as they arose.
“I haven’t met one person with a good word to say about it.”
Peter Burton, of Wantage Road, Wallingford, said he had problems with his garden waste collection and getting through on the phoneline.
He said: “It was a complete mess. The whole thing should have been better organised.”
Wallingford Town Council clerk Andrew Rogers said frustrated residents had contacted him about problems after failing to get through on the helpline number.
A South Oxfordshire District Council spokesman apologised for the problems and said hotline waiting times were coming down since more lines were added.
She said there was a week’s delay in garden waste collection in some areas, but garden waste put to the side of the bin in a bag or box would have been collected.
More cornstarch bags for kitchen caddys were on order and people should line the caddy with newspaper in the meantime, she said.
The spokesman confirmed that a very small minority of households, mostly in rural areas, had not received waste bins or coloured sacks yet.
She said: “Early indications are the new system will be a great success. With over 56,000 households and over 112,000 collections every week, there were inevitably going to be some teething problems.
“We apologise to those residents who have been inconvenienced and thank them for their patience. We hope to have all problems resolved by the end of this week.”
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