Bin collections to return to normal after coronavirus staffing pressures
by Kaiya Marjoribanks, https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/authors/kaiya-marjoribanks/Stirling Council is to resume its full household waste and recycling collection service from Monday, June 1.
From that date residents should refer to their waste collection calendar - posted to homes earlier this year - which can also be downloaded on the council’s website.
However, additional waste left beside bins will still not be collected.
Household waste and recycling centres (tips) are still closed. There are hopes they could reopen soon after COSLA agreed a coordinated approach for waste facilities across Scotland to reopen on June 1 subject to scientific advice from Scottish Government.
There will be a grey bin collection next week (May 25-31) on normal collection days, before full household waste and recycling collections recommence the following week. In the first week of normal collections, brown and green bins will be collected.
Priority-based collection arrangements have been in operation since March 30, due to Government Covid-19 restrictions and staffing pressures within the local authority’s waste service.
The council says it is now in a position to reinstate a full service after training staff from other services to support existing waste crews. It has also thanked residents for their support and patience and commended its waste teams for maintaining a service in “extremely challenging circumstances”.
Environment and housing convener Councillor Jim Thomson said: “Faced with the unprecedented challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, we had to make necessary changes to maintain a priority household collection service.
“We recognise this caused an inconvenience for our residents and I would like to thank them for their patience, resilience and understanding during this time.
“We kept the public updated at regular intervals and assured them that we would reintroduce a full collection service, including brown bin and glass box collections, as soon as possible.
“I am delighted we are now in this position to make this announcement, which has only been possible due to a huge effort from our waste teams and the support of other services.”
Vice convener Councillor Danny Gibson said reinstating the collection service has been “a significant undertaking”, adding: “We are extremely grateful to the public for bearing with us and the co-operation and support they have shown to our waste staff – without this we wouldn’t have been able to continue our kerbside collections in the initial wave of the pandemic.
“Our dedicated bin crews also deserve enormous credit for keeping the service going in such challenging conditions. Like all our council frontline workers during this crisis they have risen to the challenge and proved to be Stirling heroes.”
The service has said that, given the suspension of brown bin collections, residents may have a large volume of excess food and garden waste. Householders are therefore being asked not to “overload” if possible for the first round of brown bin collections starting June 1, saying it could prevent them from being lifted by operatives. Soil or rubble should also not be put in brown bins.
Earlier this week the council insisted reinstatement plans for the full waste collection service would be announced this week amid calls from Tory opposition councillors for more detailed information to help many householders now struggling to store their extra waste and with fly-tipping having been identified as an issue.