Questions over bin collections as disruption continues
There have been issues since January
The recorded level of bin collection across Southampton in the midst of significant disruption to the service “just doesn’t pass the smell test”, a councillor has argued.
Waste and recycling collections have been missed for weeks in different parts of the city.
Southampton City Council leaders said the issue came about after the introduction of a new working system.
Crews previously had a ‘task and finish’ practice, which allowed them to go home at 1pm if the job was complete.
Staff moved to working their contracted hours from January 29 after an agreed position was reached between management and the unions.
Councillors quizzed the Labour administration and officers about the ongoing issues at a scrutiny committee meeting on Thursday, March 14.
Ian Collins, the council’s director of environment, said the overall percentage of scheduled collections completed in February across commercial and residential bins was 97.3 per cent.
Conservative member Cllr Jeremy Moulton said: “That doesn’t feel right. If I just look at my own bin collection, that hasn’t been done on time for weeks. How can it possibly be 97 per cent?”
Throughout the meeting, other councillors highlighted problems in their wards, with several also expressing doubt over the collection percentage given.
Mr Collins said: “The drop in performance compared to January is marked. We were collecting over 99 per cent of scheduled bins, 99.7 perhaps in January, which is a 2.5 per cent drop in performance.
“But when you look at the number of lifts, we are lifting 550,000 bins a month in the city, so it is a big drop in performance and it pushes it the wrong way on the indicators we use to compare ourselves with our comparators as well.”
Cllr Moulton replied: “It just doesn’t pass the smell test, that statistic.”
He later added: “I do look at the data each day and it does change. 97 per cent still doesn’t sound remotely coherent.
“My worry is do we actually know? Do we actually know because people are telling me they are seeing binmen going down the street picking some bins and not others? I don’t know if we can even believe the statistics we have got.”
Council leader Cllr Lorna Fielker told the committee that the impact was being felt unevenly across the city.
The council previously said the move away from task and finish would mean crews were “no longer incentivised to rush”, with the new system reducing the risks of injuries and accidents.
At the scrutiny meeting, cabinet member for environment Cllr Eamonn Keogh said the “fundamental driver” of the change was to “cap the equal pay liability that has arisen”.
He said task and finish saw a group of workers in the council operating to different terms and conditions to others. Cllr Keogh described this as a “clearly unfair” situation.
He said: “Going forward we know there will not be a quick fix but there is an absolute commitment on the part of us as a council and of management to seek a resolution in an agreed and collaborative way and steps are being taken to ensure we can move to that position where residents can expect their bins to be collected as they were prior to the end of task and finish.”
Labour councillor Pat Evemy said she wanted to see the service become better than it was under the previous system.
The committee heard that waste collection vehicles typically kept as a contingency to cover for breakdowns were going out where possible to increase capacity.
Mr Collins said: “I don’t think that what we are doing at the moment is enough and we are looking to see how we can increase that capacity to improve how we catch up.”
An additional two bulk collection vehicles are due to be deployed from Tuesday, March 19.
Cllr Fielker, who admitted there had been slow progress in recent weeks, said the Association of Public Service Excellence had been brought in to provide support with the ongoing disruption.