By Jason Lewis, Local Democracy Reporter
Southampton residents have reported almost 15,000 wheelie bins not being collected in just one month.
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Waste and recycling collections across Southampton have faced severe disruption following a change in working system.
The city council moved from a ‘task and finish’ practice to staff working their contracted hours at the end of January.
Leaders said the change was to “cap” an equal pay liability that had arisen as one group of workers in the council had different terms and conditions to others.
Members of the overview and scrutiny management committee quizzed officers and the Labour administration on the disruption last month.
Off the back of this meeting, details have now been published on missed bins in February.
Residents made reports to the council that the following collections were not made:
- 7,598 residual bins
- 7,027 recycling bin
- 221 glass bins
- 98 green bins
The council document notes the total of 14,944 does not provide a “comprehensive picture” of all missed bins as not all residents across the city would have reported when their bin was not collected.
At the meeting in March, the council’s director of environment, Ian Collins, said the percentage of scheduled collections completed in February was 97.3 per cent.
Conservative councillor Jeremy Moulton said this figure “did not pass the smell test”.
The written update to the scrutiny committee says the 97.3 per cent collection rate did not provide a full picture of the disruption.
However, it adds: “The statistic was offered to illustrate the tenfold increase in service requests experienced between January and February 2024 and therefore an indication of the severe impact being experienced by residents and the determination of SCC to address this disruption.”
Council leader Cllr Lorna Fielker has provided a confidential briefing document to the committee on details related to the administration’s communications with the waste collectors and trade union representatives.
Cllr Fielker told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I am sorry that residents continue to be impacted by disruption to bin collections in some parts of the city. Whilst progress is being made, if they live on one of the streets which this has not yet reached, I appreciate they won’t feel that.
“Bulk bin collections have returned to normal and the backlog from all shared bins in flats and commercial premises in Southampton has been cleared.
“I understand the frustration of residents affected by service disruption and the council has deployed additional crews to help clear missed collections and excess waste.”
Cllr Fielker said there had been a 20 per cent drop in missed collections reported in March compared to the pervious month, but added that there was still more work to do.
She said it was a “top priority” for collections to return to the normal service residents expected.
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