Homeowners' outrage as council pauses recycling collections and warns of two-week delays
Residents of West Lancashire have hit out after council bosses announced recycling collections were on hold.
The local authority has said that no collections of blue and green bins will take place until Thursday, August 14, and then there will be a two-week wait beyond usual collection days.
For instance, residents with an expected collection day of Wednesday, August 13 will now wait until Wednesday, August 27 for the service.
The issue – which has been ongoing since the end of July – has been blamed on a range of workforce and equipment woes, and residents aren’t happy.
One resident said: “Being told that our recycling won’t be collected for two cycles (a month) is disgusting – it’s a basic service. We pay just over £300 per month council tax, an additional £35 per year for brown bin collection. We’ve heard a plethora of excuses from being down wagons to a lack of staff, and now it seems they are blaming the fact the wagon has to drive back to Skelmersdale to empty.
“Surely, when they have to collect all the additional recycling, when they eventually collect it, all these problems will compound the issue. I can’t see them getting on top of it now, in all honesty – it’s the summer holidays when everyone is home, creating more waste than usual. Wonder if we’ll get a rebate next year?”
General waste, in grey bins and sacks, and garden waste for recycling will still be collected by the council.
A statement from West Lancashire Borough Council said: “We understand how important reliable waste collections are and we’re sorry that recent delays have fallen short of the high standards customers expect and deserve from us. Our waste collection service has recently faced a number of challenges, including reduced staff availability for overtime, vehicle breakdowns and roadworks resulting in route diversions. These pressures have made it difficult to maintain high service levels.
“To help us catch up and restore reliable service, we’ve made the decision to prioritise general waste (grey bins and waste sacks), along with garden waste subscriptions, meaning a pause to green and blue recycling bin collections.
“General waste collections (grey bins and waste sacks) and garden waste subscriptions will continue as normal on your usual collection day.
“We would like to clarify that no collection of blue and green recycling bins will take place before August 14. This includes collections still outstanding, so please re-present your bin on your revised collection date.
“Staffing has been increased and our dedicated crews are working extra hours to get things back on track as quickly as possible. Recycling collections will resume on August 14.
“We know this will cause inconvenience for our customers and for this we sincerely apologise. We would like to thank residents for their patience and understanding while we resolve this issue and ask them to please visit our website for the most up to date.”
For details of recycling centres in the area, as well as new dates, visit www.westlancs.gov.uk/refuse-recycling.aspx.