Kirklees Council Refuse Collection Issues

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Last year we signed up for Kirklees Council’s Garden waste collection service, at a cost of £55. They gave us a brown bin to put the waste in, which they would empty every two weeks from March to November.

Two Collections Missed in April

The service started off well, but they missed two collections in a row back in April. As the bin was full, we could not use it for just over three weeks. On the Friday, two weeks after the second missed collection I got an email asking me to confirm it had been emptied that day. It hadn’t, we had to wait until the following Tuesday.

Another Collection Missed in September.

Back in September we were supposed to have a collection on the 15th. We left the bin as shown in the above photo. We were in Newcastle that day. When we got back the bin had not been emptied. More complaints. It was ignored for two weeks and was eventually emptied the next time it was due to be emptied. Another two weeks we were unable to use the bin. My wife tells me they came to empty it twice that day!

We’ve been unable to use our garden waste bin for five weeks this year.

Complaining Doesn’t Help

I complained about the problem. The complaint was handled by the department responsible for emptying the bin. Not very independent.

I went to one of our local councillors (we need three), she didn’t do much at all.

They tell me that if they miss a collection, they will try again the following Friday, when they mop up all the missed collections. Experience tells me, they just leave it for the next collection, two weeks later. This applies to the garden waste bin, the recycling bin and the household waste bin.

I asked about compensation as it’s a paid for service, no chance. The council told me you had to miss three successive collections before you can get it!

Location of Waste Bins Seems to be Important

Past experience of missed collections tells me that the location of the bin is important. On a Monday our green bin and brown bin are emptied. They are placed as in the photo below, behind our car. The green bin is placed in front of the brown bin because its emptied first, usually around half seven. I always hear them come, once the green bin is emptied, I move it and put the brown bin in its place. Because of all the parked cars (the houses are mostly terraced) it is not possible to put the bins side by side.

Last August, I was looking out of the window and watched a refuse collector walk straight past our and next doors bin, ignoring them. I went out and had words; he tried to tell me I’d only just put them out but then decided to empty both. I repeat, he just walked past them.

Signing-up Issues

In order to get a brown bin, you must sign up for the service the October before collections start. It takes the council five months to setup the service. That’s a bit inefficient, no wonder our council tax is so high.

My sister lives in Liverpool and thought a garden waste bin would be a good idea this year. She signed up in February; everything was setup for the first collection in early March. Surly Kirklees should be able to do this. Five months, if you ran a private company like this it would go bust.

Getting Rid of the Car

I signed up for the service because I wanted to see how it worked, as in a few years we will probably be going careless. Without a car, there is a problem taking garden waste to the tip. We’ve though this through and we are going to start using a composter and cutting back on the number of plants in our garden. We just can’t trust Kirklees Council.

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