Cllrs say Waste collector should be fined
Two Somerset County Councillors have called for Suez to be fined. Suez took over as contractor to Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) in March 2020. Independent, Neil Bloomfield, and Conservative Josh Williams made the call for a financial penalty. Cllr Bloomfield who represents Martock and Cllr Williams, Brympton say they have a mountain of complaints.
Cllr Neil Bloomfield told The Leveller “I’m inundated with complaints over this appalling service and rightly so. The missed collections and false promises are a joke. If they couldn’t do the job why take it on. I was against this change in council where it seemed more about saving money than a good or even adequate service. I’m waiting on Suez MD Mike Green to explain how he intends to fix this”.
The two councillors are now calling for Suez to be fined by the 5 councils who fund waste collection in Somerset.
The Leveller too has received complaints from residents since SUEZ took over at Somerset Waste Partnership. The two councillors claim that on a daily basis there are large numbers of missed collections across Somerset. Nor do they accept the problem is a matter of a driver shortage or COVID. The councillors say both were issues before Suez took over the contract.
SWP launched a new waste service dubbed Recycle More in October 2020. This saw the gradual introduction of three-weekly residual collections across the county. This is in addition to a kerbside collection for pots, tubs and trays (PTT), small electrical equipment and batteries.
In June this year Mickey Green, SWP’s managing director, was reported as saying: “We know we’re not where we need to be, but there’s no quick fix. We apologise and are working hard to get things back of track. Please bear with us.”
It now seems that patience has run thin. Cllr Bloomfield is calling Suez to deliver as promised or pay customers compensation out of their pocket.
definately fined-incompetent
Collections were working fine until blue bags were introduced, bin collections reduced to every 3 weeks and collection days changed. Should have left it alone!
Agree. Food and recycling collected in our road last week 4 weeks after the last collection and the road opposite us, Highfield Terrace in Bower Hinton, has not been collected in 5 weeks now. Apparently they can’t get the van down the road – although the crew prior to the 1July change seemed to manage fine.
I am interested to know if they experienced similar issues when the rollout happened in Mendip.
Is what we are experience to some degree as a result of matters that weren’t anticipated ie COVID and a HGV driver shortage nationally.
We totally agree. We in Somerton have had missed bins too. In hot weather the smell and flies around our food bin were awful enenthough all were in green bags, there seems no rhyme or reason to the collections, they do one side of the road and leave the other.
What are we paying for. Green bin still full. Black bin still full blue bag over full because they didn’t take it last time. What a joke. Fly tipping will rise because of the joke of a service