Bring back November green bin emptying say LibDems

Liberal Democrat Councillors will try to bring back the emptying of green waste bins during November at next weeks Council budget meeting.

Labour decided last year to scrap all collections between October and April as one of their economy cuts.

Green_waste_family_89__1

Many gardeners pointed out that November was often a month when a lot of green waste was generated.

Meanwhile Labour are now trying to sell extra green bins to residents with large gardens.

Despite the growing interest in food self sufficiency, the York Council now restricts free collections to just one bin per property.

Many gardeners are thought to have disposed of surplus green waste through their grey bins, partly accounting for the increase in the proportion of York’s rubbish going to landfill (and the financial penalties that result for taxpayers).

The Council statement reads.

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Back lanes in Bishopthorpe Road area to be “gated”

Back lane gate locations. click for larger plan

Back lane gate locations. click for larger plan

The Council has agreed to put security gates on the following back alleys

  • Millfield Road/Thorpe Street
  • Thorpe Street/Russell Street
  • Russell Street/Scott Street
  • Scott Street/Nunmill Street

The change means that refuse will in future be collected from the front of properties.

The proposals were controversial but objections were overuled last week by the Cabinet member (Cllr Merrett)

The plan is expected to cost around £18,000 to implement and should improve security for properties backing onto the lanes involved.

The Nunmill Street/Bishopthorpe Road alleyway will remain open.

Extra green bin collection urged by LibDems

Liberal Democrats have called for an extra green bin collection to take place this month after residents criticised York Council.

Green Bin

Labour run City of York Council’s controversial changes to garden waste collection mean that the last green bin collection before April 2014 has already been completed. However, leaves are still falling from trees across York and a mild autumn has seen late grass growth and some evergreens continue to need trimming.

Lib Dems have been swamped by complaints from residents who say leaves and garden waste are piling-up. Meanwhile, council officers have admitted that the garden waste which have been collected last winter will end-up in landfill this winter – causing a further rise in landfill tax for the council.

Latest figures reveal that York is currently failing to meet any of its key recycling targets and the amount of waste being sent to landfill is increasing. This increase will see the cost of ‘landfill tax’ rocket to £3,918,960 – a £581,360 or 17% rise on 2012/13.

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E petition started as Council stops green bin collection

This is the last day that the Council will be emptying green bins this winter.

Green bin 2

One resident has started an “on line” petition aimed at getting the service restored. Click here to access it

The petition reads

We the undersigned petition the council to collect and empty our Green Bins throughout the Year.

Autumn leaves are falling everywhere and gardens are still growing but we have nowhere to put our Green Waste unless we store it until spring or take it at our own expense to Hazel Court.
We have all paid for this service to the council who have short changed us by cutting winter collections

Labour Councillor refuses to apologise for bins blunders

Asked, at the last Council meeting, to apologise to those residents whose bins were not emptied on time, Cllr Levene refused to do so.

Instead he claimed that only 0.12% of collections had been missed.

He conveniently forgot that 90% of residents did not have changes to their collection days.

Last Christmas some bins weren’t emptied for nearly 3 weeks and, although there have been fewer missed collections this week, the holiday season could being more problems.

Green waste collection stops at the end of the month.

Bins in Foxwood

Bins in Foxwood


The Council has incurred additional overtime expenditure on Saturdays “catching up” with missed deliveries.

Cllr Levene protestations were undermined by a fellow Cabinet member who, in response to a separate question about delays in answering at the Councils call centre, said,

“the significant increase in calls week beginning 9th September were due in the main to the waste collection changes affecting a large proportion of residents in York.

Clearly original estimates of resources needed to meet demand had to be re-evaluated once the real impacts were known, and then adjusted”.

The Cabinet member went on to say that

“We aim to answer 80% of our calls within 20 seconds with 95% of calls being answered”.

This compared to the actual performance, in early September, when average waiting times were 2.5 minutes with 40% of calls being abandoned.

Fourth week of bins emptying chaos in York – Council get wards wrong

The Council web site made a mistake on Tuesday in identifying the locations of bins that hadn’t been emptied.

Grey bins in various pa8th October 2013rts of the Westfield and Acomb wards weren’t collected. However the Council said these were in “Copmanthorpe”.

Really is time that they sorted this out.

Tuesday 8th October the following areas did not have their waste collected as scheduled:

“Companthorpe” Grey bin (sic)

◦Askham Lane (Gale Lane – Ridgeway)

◦Vesper Drive

◦Ridgeway

◦Rylatt Place

◦Wetherby Road (Ridgeway to bypass)

◦Briar Avenue

◦Collingham Place
Woodthorpe (green bin)

◦Summerfield Road
◦Wordsworth Cresent
◦Ullswater Terrace
◦Arundel Grove
◦Overdale Close
◦Silverdale Court

Waste bin emptying problems getting larger – Dringhouses, Micklegate and Bishopthorpe miss out

Today (Monday) the Council is reporting that both grey and green bins haven’t been emptied in parts of York.

Some of the roads listed on the Councils web site as “Micklegate Ward ” are actually in the Dringhouses Ward.

The web site is also a little vague about when the grey bins will actually be collected, although it seems that the green bins in Bishopthorpe will be emptied tomorrow (Tuesday)

Monday 30th September some properties in the following area(s ) did not have their waste collected as scheduled:

Grey Bin: (Micklegate Ward)

◦ Chalfonts

◦ Pulleyn Drive

◦ White House Gardens

◦ White House Rise

◦ White House Drive

◦ White House Dale

◦ St Georges Place

◦ Newington Court

◦ Mount Vale Drive

◦ Towton Avenue

◦ Moorgarth Avenue

Green Bin: (Bishopthorpe)

◦ Copmanthorpe Lane

◦ The Coppice
◦ Kirkwell
◦ New Lane
◦ Temple Road

“Green waste will be collected on Tuesday 1st October, please remember to present your garden waste bins by 7am”.

Poppleton and Rawcliffe miss out on today’s bin emptying.

Friday 27th September some properties in the following area(s ) did not have their waste collected as scheduled:

Green Bin: (Poppleton)

◦ Main Street
◦ Limegarth
◦ School Lane
◦ Riversvale drive
◦ Springfield Road
◦ Bankside Close
◦ Littlefield Close
◦ Nether way (part)
◦ Montague Walk
◦ Dikelands Lane
◦ Little Garth
◦ Ebor Way (part)
◦ Beech Way

Green Bin: Rawcliffe

◦ Eastholme Drive
◦ Byron Drive
◦ Southolme Drive
◦ Northolme Drive
◦ Grasmere Grove
◦ Kentmere Drive

The Council says that green waste will be collected on Saturday 28th September, “please remember to present your garden waste bins by 7am”.