'Chronic' problems with bin collections in Brighton

Residents’ representatives in an area of Brighton have called for action to resolve “chronic” problems with rubbish and recycling collections.

People living on a number of council estates said that they had gone weeks without a rubbish collection.

In a report to the “north area” housing management panel, parts of Hollingdean were said to have had just two rubbish collections in 18 weeks.

On the Bates Estate, off Lewes Road, problems listed by residents included rubbish left next to bins, smashed glass left after recycling collections, fly-tipping and too few bins for the blocks.

According to a report, the people living in 60 flats have to share just one bin for rubbish.

Over the past six months, Brighton and Hove City Council said that its estates services team has responded to 15 reports of fly-tipping, removing items within 10 days.

The council said that it had six mobile closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and that it may use them on the Bates Estate.

It also said that rubbish and recycling crews should pick up bagged rubbish left by bins and clear up smashed glass on their rounds.

Similar issues were cited in Moulsecoomb, at Sylvan Hall, off Ditchling Road, and Parkmead, in Park Crescent.

Tenant reps raised the issue at the north area housing management panel in September and the recurring problem is coming up again at the next meeting next week.

In a report for the meeting, reps asked why Cityclean, the council’s rubbish and recycling service, had not resolved the repeated problems. The report said that there were often underlying issues such as blocked access.

When asked how Cityclean was improving the service, the report said: “Cityclean is working with housing on a process for reporting repeated missed collections to improve the communication between Cityclean and residents and to improve the response time for resolving issues.

“Problem areas are being fed back to Cityclean, which are then tracked.”

Hollingdean Residents Association rep Ian Beck called for action in his area, saying that Cityclean was not answering emails despite weeks of issues.

In September, Mr Beck said: “Southmount had two collections in nine weeks. Dunster Close had one side missed out three weeks in a row. Tavistock Down has problems with fly-tipping.

“Recycling containers were put in Tavistock Down and they’re not emptying them.”

After Mr Beck complained, estates services managers visited Southmount, which is a narrow road, and found that parked cars were preventing access to the bin stores and there were too few bins for the number of properties. These were now on order.

Cityclean has been under the microscope in recent months after an independent investigation found a “toxic culture” at the Hollingdean depot.

Councillors quizzed Melissa Francis, Cityclean’s head of operations, about how sickness and holidays contributed to consistently missed collections.

They were told that crews had been asked to cover each other’s routes when available but they did not always do so.

She said: “There are very restrictive working practises at Cityclean which means that, although that sounds straightforward, it is quite a challenge to be able to push through.”

The north area housing management panel is due to meet at the housing centre conference room in Eastergate Road, Moulsecoomb, at 2pm next Monday (4 December).