By George Lythgoe – Local Democracy Service
STAFFING problems and a lack of wagons, combined with an increasing population, have seen bins across Tameside left unemptied, a report has revealed.
A population increase throughout the borough means more waste needs to be collected from more homes. And a recent review into management services found rounds are frequently not completed, meaning bins have to be emptied the following day.
This results in brown bin collections being cancelled to free up the team to finish incomplete work.
To try and resolve this, town hall bosses are set to inject £1.865m into the service over next two years.
The cash would go towards hiring more staff and buying four new waste collection vehicles, council papers say.
A council report read: “Members will be aware there are a number of ongoing issues with the reliability of the waste and recycling collection service. Often collection rounds do not complete, and streets have to be returned to the following day.
“On occasion brown bin collection rounds are stood down due to vehicle or staffing availability issues to ensure bins that are collected less frequently than weekly are emptied. This disruption to the service leads to decreased customer satisfaction and participation in recycling along with increased contact to the council and complaints.”
Under new plans, technology would also be bought in order to calculate a better route for the bin wagons to use in order to avoid missed collections.
A meeting of the executive cabinet on January 29 will decide whether or not to approve the extra funding for the service.