Council takes legal advice as bin collection row escalates
There's a special meeting later - as the row over bin collections by a contractor escalates in the South Hams
Last updated 8th Jun 2022
There's a special meeting in the South Hams tonight to look at waste collections - after a service which only just restarted was affected by more staff shortages.
The brown bin collection service was paused last summer due to staff shortages - but has suffered problems since being reinstated in March.
The boss of FCC Environment has tonight been called to a special meeting to answer questions about the ongoing disruption
A spokesperson for South Hams District Council, said: “The council has taken legal advice and has written to FCC demanding that they rectify the situation as a matter of priority.
"The situation has gone on far too long and it urgently requires a resolution for residents.
"Unfortunately, the Council is unable to provide further details at this stage, but they will provide an update as soon as they are able to.
"At all stages, the Council has sought to work with the contractor to improve and resolve the situation."
A spokesperson for the firm said: "FCC Environment understands South Hams residents’ frustration and annoyance with the continued disruption to the waste and recycling services. We would like to sincerely apologise for the failure to deliver the service you expect and deserve.
"In particular we would like to say sorry for the difficulties experienced with the reintroduction of the garden waste collection service.
"There are reasons for this but we want to clarify that when the service was rolled out we had recruited sufficient staff required under the contract to deliver the service but since then staff have left the contract and we have been unable to replace them.
"We are operating an average absence level of 14% and, along with other issues which have made ongoing recruitment challenging, this has made delivering the service problematic. Notwithstanding these issues, the residents have a right to expect a good and reliable service.
"At all stages, FCC has sought to work with the council to improve and resolve the situation and this remains the case.
"We are fully committed to ensuring that everybody has a garden waste collection service on a reasonably regular basis whilst the ongoing issues are resolved. In addition, we are looking at how we can adjust our collection rounds to ensure that the same households are not missed each time."