Southampton: "Nightmare" bin collection issues improving says city council

Tristan Pascoe & Emily Hudson - BBC News
Bin
Residents have been leaving their recycling bins on the pavement due to uncertainty around collection [BBC]

Southampton residents waiting for their bins to be collected have called it a "nightmare" with rubbish blowing across the streets.

Over 10,000 bins were uncollected in the city in March, which was down from the almost 15,000 missed in February.

Waste and recycling collections in the area have faced disruption following changes to shift patterns and safety practices introduced in January.

The council says it is prioritising collecting bulky and household waste.

Marion Middlemast lives in Shirley, and she told the BBC it has been an "absolute nightmare."

She said: "You've got problems with pests, you've got problems with the smell, as things in the bins start to decay and deteriorate which is not nice for people."

Marion
Marion Middlemast is a Southampton resident who has described the situation as an "absolute nightmare" [BBC]

At the start of the year, the council moved from allowing waste crews to go home when their round was done to enforcing contracted hours.

The council said the change was made to bring bin staff shift patterns in line with those of other council workers.

City Council Leader Lorna Fielker said bin collections are improving.

She added: "We've put additional crews in place and we're doing Saturday collections, which help us both with the catch-up but also it's giving us the time to do the work to rebalance those rounds so that they are completed in the time that's set aside for them."

The council confirmed that the following missed collections were reported last month:

  • 4,950 residual bins

  • 6,169 recycling bins

  • 321 glass bins

  • 158 green bins

The figures could be higher as not all residents will have contacted the council to report their uncollected bins.

Deputy leader of the Conservative group for Southampton City Council, Jeremy Moulton called the situation "intolerable."

He said: "The whole thing is a mess and we just want it sorted."

He believes the council should have communicated better with bin staff and their unions to begin with and going forward he wants the authority to give Southampton residents more information.

Liberal Democrat group leader for the council Richard Blackman said: "In some neighbourhoods waste has not been collected for five weeks. Residents are understandably fed up.

"The situation continues to be completely unacceptable. If the Labour administration can't manage to collect our city's waste efficiently, why should residents believe that they are able to take the City Council through a complex and challenging transformation programme over the next 12 months?"

Cllr Lorna Fielker
Councillor Lorna Fielker said the council is prioritising collecting bulky and household waste [BBC]

New safety guidelines also introduced mean bin staff can no longer move multiple bins at once.

Rich White is the regional political officer from UNITE the union, which represents the majority of Southampton City Council bin staff.

He admitted the changes were necessary for staff safety but said the union highlighted to the council that the new way of working - especially within new safety guidelines - would be slower than it was.

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