Councillors spot North Devon bin problems

Delays caused by weather conditions and illnesses

North Devon District Council has been urged to address issues around bin collections after multiple councillors noticed problems over the winter months.

Council leader Cllr David Worden (Liberal Democrat, South Molton) prepared a report for the full council meeting on Wednesday (11 January) highlighting that waste and recycling has increased to the extent that the waste store in Barnstaple is struggling to keep up.

He now wants the council to look into revising the layout of the yard, and installing new equipment to reduce contamination and waste.

Adverse weather conditions and illnesses to crew members have played a role in preventing some bins from being collected in recent months.

Cllr Jeremy Yabsley (Conservative, Witheridge) gave a damming review of the current state of collections in North Devon.

“Since the frosting when we had the ice and snow, recycling and black bin collections have been no less than shambolic,” he said.

Cllr Yabsley reported that, earlier that day, he had seen “recycling all over the place. It hasn’t been collected, some of it has been collected before Christmas. I hear from colleagues that it is similar in other areas.”

Cllr Worden suggested that some missed collections can be accounted for by residents putting their bins out on the wrong day having not realised that it was a bank holiday.

“I know that there were lots of people who actually put their waste and recycling out on the wrong day,” explained Cllr Worden. “They didn’t realise that, because there was a bank holiday on the Monday, it would be one day late during that week.”

Cllr Netti Pearson (Green, Ilfracombe West) pointed out that rubbish is being blown out onto the street, as well as out of lorries, so she suggested putting measures in place to prevent litter ending up in the countryside.

“I personally think we have a problem too, because we are littering,” she said. “Our own collection is system is actually littering the countryside, and so we do need to address it.

“It could be just about investment in lids for the boxes. Something needs to be done because it’s just crazy.”

Cllr Julie Hunt (Liberal Democrats, Barnstaple with Westacott) gave a differing view, saying that she has not found any issues with her collections of late.

“We’ve never had problems with it blowing anywhere,” she said. “It could be because I’ve got a fantastic crew that come where I live.”

A less pleasant experience was had by Cllr Andrea Davis (Conservative, Heanton Punchardon), who has been “storing black bags” at her house “since before Christmas,” and is now finding that the rubbish is being eaten by mice and rats.

Cllr Frank Biederman (Independent, Fremington) said that waste collection has “improved,” but offered the idea of prioritising houses that have been missed on a particular week to prevent a build-up of rubbish.

“The frustration is when, when we do have sickness or when we do have lorries off for whatever reason, it’s always the same [houses] that get missed,” he explained.

“If unfortunately we have to miss a group one week because of sickness or whatever, then [we need to] absolutely go to them next week first. What appears to happen, if we start at point A and finish at point B and we have staffing issues, it’s always the ones at the end of the round that miss out.

“I think if that happens, I think we should start with them and make sure that they’re not missed for a second week.”

In more positive news, North Devon’s recycling is above average for the rest of the country, achieving rates of around 50 per cent.