Waste chiefs have vowed to investigate why some customers were given incorrect information about their garden waste collections.
Some people in South Holland were provided with inaccurate information about their garden waste collection rounds and many were also unable to report missed collections on the South Holland District Council (SHDC) website.
A South Holland District Council bin lorry. Photo SHDC
SHDC officials put the issue down to a software update which went wrong and meant that not all the information was correctly passed on.
At an SHDC performance monitoring panel meeting on Tuesday, May 26, Jason King, executive director for communities at the South and East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership, said: “So, initially the garden waste scheme was like a closed scheme – that’s probably the best way to describe it – to specific areas. When they (the council) introduced new rounds, essentially overriding the performance already in the system, the issue is that it’s got two sets of information that’s been put into the system.
“That’s where I see the challenge has arisen from. However, this is what we want to have properly investigated, because this should have been flagged by testing.
“Because before you put anything in the live system, obviously you put it through the test system to make sure you don’t have any issues.
“That wasn’t identified during the testing to carry out, so we need to understand where the issue is.
“But in terms of the day to day, once that issue has been resolved – as it has now – those collections have operated as they should and that works fine.”
A South Holland District Council brown bin
Bryan Alcock (Independent – Crowland and Deeping St Nicholas), who was chairing the meeting, questioned why this error hadn’t been identified earlier.
He said: “I think the worrying thing is that we’ve been using these sorts of systems for many years now.
“It’s nothing new. And yet we seem to have got one here that’s got a few holes in it.
“But I just don’t understand how as an authority we manage to use something like this that causes issues.”
Coun Paul Barnes (Independent – Fleet) also called for SHDC to communicate more clearly with residents about any changes, especially with bigger changes to come later in the year as residents move to wheelie bins.
He said: “I think there has got to be a review of any communication that is related to waste collection, because you’ve seen on the garden waste, there’s been communications going out that are confusing or not correct.
“It’s a major change, as you know, to introduce bins – and we’re going to have all kinds of problems.
“We understand that. But what we’ve got to make sure is that communications are clear and sites are correct.”
Mr King responded to say that the issue has now been resolved and the council’s systems are back to normal – and that officers will look to get assurance for members on the ‘robustness and resilience’ of the system.
The SHDC garden waste service is a subscription scheme in which residents pay to have their bins empty once a fortnight.
Currently, the council charges people £62.50 for 24 collections throughout the year.
Collections take place every two weeks, with the exception of Christmas.
Additionally, there is a charge of £54.40 to cover delivery, repairs and purchase of the bin.
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