Are Southwark's "Missed Bin" Collections Entirely Fictional?

[ianc]

In 20 years in Southwark, I've never known a "missed bin collection" that I raised actually get actioned in the 3-4 days promised. Has anyone else? It usually just waits til the next normal collection, which is now a fortnight.

Our Blue bin was missed on 31st Jan. I reported it online that evening and was promised 3-4 days. A week later, I raised it online again, stating it was the 2nd report and that the bin was now completely full (with a pic to prove it was all normal household recycling). Again, I was promised 3-4 days. Today, I was told the request was closed / completed... and yet I've got a FULL Blue bin out front containing 1 month of uncollected recycling.

What's worse, because of the full Blue bin, the downstairs neighbours (who I share the bins with) have filled the Green bin with what I can only assume to be overflow recycling. I've got a week until that's emptied.

What's the point in Southwark pretending to care about "missed bins" and promising to collect in 3-4 days? In 20 years, this has NEVER happened.

I've copied James Barber and Renata Hamvas in on the latest email back to Southwark, so I'm praying they can help. In the meantime, I'm not sure what to do with rubbish / recycling. Maybe I should sling it into the street so Southwark wake up.

Does anyone else have any luck with reporting "missed bins"?

Apologies for the boring topic, but I can't think of anywhere else to ask.

[singalto]

I reported a missed collection and was told it would be emptied within 3 days but it wasn't. I think it is totally fictional!

[Mrs Y]

Its fictional

[Penguin68]

I had one a few years ago - and last week I saw a refuse tipper cart making a collection in our road (Underhill) on a non-bin day - so I assume that was one as well.

[Siduhe]

Fictional. Last time I reported and then followed up as to why no missed collection, I got a long explanation about the system used to log missed collection jobs through to Waste Management being down so they could not send anything to the team to collect missed collections from residents which then caused a back log of responding to residents "which we can only apologise for". Which would have been fine, save that they sent me an identical email three months earlier - word for word - just changed the date.

[Inkmaiden]

Not fictional!

We had a spate of missed collections, both green and blue bins. Every time I reported it the bin was emptied within 48hrs. I also sent an email to complain because it was happening so frequently and received an email in response and a call from a Veolia manager with an apology and an explanation. It was a while ago though, so maybe things have changed.

[Zelig]

On the odd occasion I have had a missed collection I have reported via 'phone or website and the bin has always been collected within timescale.

[ianc]

Maybe I've always lived on streets where there's very little "spare" capacity to pick up the missed collections when they happen. Sounds like it's happening for some folks though, but not for others.

One thing's certain: Now the collections are fortnightly, leaving the missed ones until next time isn't an option.

[Renata Hamvas]

Hi Ian, I have emailed you. I have raised an enquiry with waste services and hopefully this will be resolved quickly.

Renata

[Oldtincan]

Not fictional. Has happened a few times over the last 6 months and after reporting it via the website they've been emptied a few days after.

[ianc]

Renata Hamvas Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Hi Ian, I have emailed you. I have raised an

> enquiry with waste services and hopefully this

> will be resolved quickly.

> Renata

Thanks Renata. Many thanks for escalating. I can confirm both Blue and Green bins were emptied today. They seem to be able to act on these "missed bin" notifications when forced to, just sadly not always when they are raised (even twice).

[Siduhe]

Well I've taken heart from others' good experiences - will let you how I get on as our brown food bin wasn't emptied yesterday, so have just reported.

[Penguin68]

Clearly there are mixed experiences of forum-members - it is possible (not probable) that a proper study might show some consistent patterns - maybe some crews are more assiduous than others in doing out of sequence pick-ups - whether this study would give a useful result (and one which is cost-effective) is however moot. Mind you - relying on the good offices of councilors to pick-up on individual issues is equally not a very cost-efficient way of progressing!

[nxjen]

Siduhe Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Well I've taken heart from others' good

> experiences - will let you how I get on as our

> brown food bin wasn't emptied yesterday, so have

> just reported.

Good luck, though I've found where the brown bin is concerned, as this is on a weekly collection, they will expand the three days to coincide with the regular collection next week.

[Phlox]

Not fictional.

[geobz]

they are making less collections for sure!

[Mugglesworth]

Hit and miss rather than fictional or not. Dodgy practise includes opening a new "3 business days" ticket when the first one has not been effected and waiting a day or two before acknowledging the notification. They managed to delay a blue bin collection for a full 14 days but then, bizarrely, collected it as a separate exercise on the very day that the blue bins were to be emptied anyway. Conversely, an unemptied brown bin was emptied within 48 hours.

Has anyone else suffered from decanting? By this I mean where the person who comes for the bin picks out one or two objects from your bin and puts them into another bin, which is then emptied while yours is not? This seems common with the brown bin, where they will fish out one or two compostable bags and leave the rest. This process often leaves food waste strewn on our path and the pavement, along with accruing muck at the bottom of the brown bin.

[Siduhe]

Well, I can only offer an unreserved apology to Southwark/Veolia. Missed brown bin emptied at 8am this morning, well within the 3 days.

[wallingford]

My bins were missed on Monday, I reported 930 on Tuesday and was promised it would be collected within the 3 days and still not been picked up. so it is sounding pretty hit or miss