By John Baron
Councillors in ‘outer’ West Leeds this afternoon voiced their frustrations over repeated missed bin collections on certain streets.
Members of the outer west community committee voiced concerns that some streets and areas were being repeatedly missed out, with one councillor pointing to one street where brown bins had not been collected five times in a row.
Councillors heard that bin routes in Leeds will be revised for the first time since 2010 and will be subject to a consultation – but felt the city’s most vulnerable people were sometimes being let down by the service.
Plans to improve bin collections include improved workflows and better use of technology, councillors meeting at Farnley Hall were told by council officers.
Cllr David Blackburn (Green, Farnley & Wortley) raised concerns with missed assisted bin collections in his ward, which he said affected residents who really needed help.
His concerns were backed by Cllr Mark Sewards (Lab, Farnley & Wortley), who added: “Some residents I have spoken to feel like they have done something wrong, which of course they haven’t. It is very important that those residents get some support.”
Cllr Amanda Carter (Cons, Calverley & Farsley) added: “The areas that are frequently missed are the biggest problem. People can’t understand how it keeps happening to them.”
Cllr Peter Carlill (Lab, Calverley & Farsley) raised frustrations with brown bin collections being missed five times in a row in his ward. “It is a small number of users who are continually affected,” he added.
Issues with new housing estates being forgotten and missed collections in cul-de-sacs were raised by Cllr Trish Smith (Cons, Pudsey).
The last set of changes to bin routes in 2010 aimed to save the council £2.4million a year and were part of the deal that ended 2009’s seven-week strike by Leeds Council refuse workers.
The outer west community committee is made up of nine councillors from the Calverley & Farsley, Farnley & Wortley, and Pudsey wards. It has five Conservative councillors, three Labour and one Green.
I live on one of the streets where the bin collection is hit and miss, you really never know from one week to the next whether your bin will be emptied when youve taken it out. Its always exactly the same scenario, the street immediately before ours gets emptied, but then they stop. You can report this on the council website, but I doubt that ever gets monitored as you never get any feedback as to what the problem might be. And how predictable that the council is pointing towards the forthcoming review of all the collection routes, talk about smoke and mirrors…