Recycling collections in Nuneaton and Bedworth will be hit by new Coventry strike

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'We will do our best to get to you'



Council bosses have told householders in Nuneaton and Bedworth that refuse teams will do 'their best' to collect bins as collections are hit by new strike action in Coventry.

Brown-lid collections across the borough are carried out by Coventry City Council and its workforce has revealed they are to stage more strike action over the coming weeks.

These extra strike dates, admits Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, will affect recycling collections across the borough.

Streets in parts of Crowhill, Attleborough and Whitestone were left with unemptied recycling bins on January 6 - and more could follow in the coming weeks.

Councillor Sue Markham, cabinet member for public services at the council, explained that the council's own team will attempt to make some recycling collections - but they may not be able to get to them all.

"I would like to apologise to all residents affected by this industrial action, and thank everyone for your patience," she said,

"We know this is frustrating for everyone and we are doing all we can to encourage those involved to find a solution.

"If residents could help us by putting their brown lid bin out on the normal collection day, we will do our best to get to you. If we don’t manage to do so, please take your bin in again until your next scheduled collection day.

"Please consider visiting the Recycling Centre to dispose of your recycled waste if you can."

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Recycling collections in Nuneaton and Bedworth to be hit by third week of Coventry strike action



A warning has been issued that recycling collections in Nuneaton and Bedworth will be hit by a third week of Coventry strike action.

Brown lid collections across the borough are set to be impacted by the strike action on Wednesday (January 19) and Friday (January 21).

This is because Coventry bin drivers, who are locked in a bitter pay dispute with the city council, carry out recycling collections on behalf of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council.

The borough council has said that it will aim to help those who have been inconvenienced by missed collections.

This includes getting its own staff to empty as many brown lid bins as possible on the strike days.

Extra staff will be on hand on non-strike days to collect cardboard and additional recycling waste on scheduled rounds said a Town Hall spokesman.

The council also says that recycling can be put into the black bins for the collection the following week.

"Encouraging households affected by the current industrial action to dispose of recycled waste in their black bin if they need to, as well as putting additional resource into black bin collections in those areas," the spokesman said.

The council is asking residents to continue to put out their bins when their regular recycling collection is due and, if they are not collected, to take the following action.

• If you do not receive a recycling collection this coming week, you can place recycling waste in your black bin for collection the following week (week commencing 24 January).
  
• Crews will take additional black bag waste if needed. The borough council aims to continue this action for those affected, throughout the strike period. It has been stressed that this only applies to those areas where recycling collections have been missed the previous week, and not to all household refuse collections.
  
• Book a visit to a recycling centre, such as the facility at Judkins.

Councillor Sue Markham, cabinet member for public services, said: “We recognise people might find they are storing recyclable waste they want to dispose of.

"If we have missed your recycling collection day, and you need to, please place your recycling waste in black bags and place these in or next to your black bin, which will continue to be collected on its regular collection date.

“We are doing all we can to minimise the disruption to residents at this time.”

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Almost 40 streets in Nuneaton left with full recycling bins due to Coventry bin drivers' strike



Almost 40 streets in Nuneaton were left with full recycling bins because of the Coventry bin drivers' strike.

Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council has confirmed that 38 streets across Whitestone were left with no recycling collections yesterday (January 19).

This means dozens and dozens of households were left with full brown-lid bins.

Those affected have been told that they can put out extra bags with their black bin collections next week.

The borough council has a deal with the Coventry City Council to provide recycling collections - but these have been, and will continue to be, hit by the bin lorry drivers' industrial action.

Town Hall leader, councillor Kris Wilson, has already said that they will not be paying Coventry City Council for any missed collections.

He also issued a plea to the city council to end the 'misery' for residents, both in the borough and in the city itself.

“Nuneaton and Bedworth are doing everything we can to find short-term solutions, but we have no say in the negotiations. It is entirely down to Unite and Coventry City Council to resolve this," he said.

"Labour in Coventry need to show leadership over their issue, but there has been a complete absence of leadership over this. I shouldn’t be surprised as they would be clashing with their union paymasters."

He went on: "They need to get their priorities right and put the residents of Coventry – and therefore Nuneaton and Bedworth as its customer – first."

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Three recycling drop-off sites to open in Nuneaton and Bedworth due to Coventry bin driver strike



Three recycling drop-off sites are to open in Nuneaton and Bedworth due to Coventry bin driver strike.

Council leader, councillor Kris Wilson last night (January 26) announced that the borough is seeking permits from the Environment Agency to open three recycling drop-off sites.

This is in preparation of the all-hour bin driver strike set to start in Coventry at the end of this month and last until March.

Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council has a deal with the city council to provide recycling collections - but these have, and will continue to be hit by the bin lorry drivers' industrial action.

Cllr Wilson said he could not yet reveal the location of the drop-off sites - but said it is part of the council's action to try and mitigate the impact of the strikes.

"We are working hard to limit the impact of the strike between Unite the union and Coventry City Council on our borough," he said.

"We are in the process of obtaining permission from the Environment Agency for emergency permits to have deposit sites at three locations in our borough for residents to bring their recycling if they can.

"When these sites are operational, I would ask that residents who are able to drop off their recycling at these sites do so, as this means are operatives are able to complete their normal rounds as quickly as possible.

"But, where residents are unable to do so, we will work to maintain additional collections with the black bin."

He went on to add that he would not issue the same advice as the Coventry council - to cycle to the sites.

"I am certainly not going to give ludicrous advice as appears to be the case in Coventry that you can cycle your waste to one of the sites," he said.

He reiterated his message that the borough council will not pay for missed collections and added that the strike is going to hit the Town Hall's finances due to the drop-off sites and having to deploy extra staff.

"It will undoubtedly place an additional financial burden on this council, we would appear to be the collateral damage of the union because of this dispute," he said.

"The cost to us has yet to be assessed and worked out fully.

"But I can confirm that we will only be paying Coventry City Council for work that is completed under the contract and not the normal value of the contract.

"We will pay what we owe for services rendered and not a penny more.

"I would like to reiterate my thanks to the Coventry city workers who are turning up to work and providing the service to our residents. To me, that highlights the best of what local councils and public service do for our residents.

"We are doing everything we possibly can, within the law, to defend the interests of our residents, we have no say in this dispute."

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"But I can confirm that we will only be paying Coventry City Council for work that is completed under the contract and not the normal value of the contract.

"We will pay what we owe for services rendered and not a penny more.

It's a crying shame that Joe Public can't do the same!

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Coventry bin strike has hit every recycling collection in Nuneaton and Bedworth



Recycling collections have been missed on each round across Nuneaton and Bedworth since strike action in Coventry started.

Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council said that brown-lid collections across the borough have been hit every day since Coventry bin drivers began their strike action.

Monday (January 31) marked the first day of a full strike until the end of March from Coventry bin drivers, who are members of Unite.

The borough council has said it is doing 'everything it can' to minimise disruptions, but some brown lid collections are being missed.

Borough council leader, councillor Kris Wilson, last week said that the Town Hall is looking to open three recycling drop-off sites across the borough.

In a new statement, Cllr Sue Markham, cabinet member responsible for recycling, explained that they are still exploring this.

She said the Town Hall is waiting to hear if Coventry City Council's move to bring in a private contractor to help collect waste will prevent the need for the drop-off sites.

“The trade unions have reported that all recycling collections in Nuneaton and Bedworth on every day of the week will be affected by this strike action from now on, but I want to assure residents that we will do everything we can to keep things running," Cllr Markham said.

“While our own teams, with some of the Coventry workers, have continued to collect as much recycled waste as they can, some household brown lid bins have been missed on each round since the strike started.

“We are ready to do whatever we can to deal with this, to help minimise the impact of this action on our residents.

“As announced previously, we are working on the possibility of offering recycling drop-off points for households affected by the strike. At this point it is too early to say if the action taken by Coventry City Council to employ contractors on this work will mean we won’t need to put that plan into operation.

"We are, of course, continuing to watch the impact of this industrial action very closely and will continue to try to keep residents in the picture as this action continues.”

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'I will push the bin to Coventry if I have to' - businesses in Nuneaton hit by strike



Commercial waste in Nuneaton and Bedworth has been left uncollected for weeks - leaving one frustrated customer saying 'I will push the bin to Coventry if I have to'.

It has been well-documented that brown-lid recycling collections across the borough have been impacted by the Coventry bin drivers' action.

But it has also hit the commercial waste service as well as the bulky waste collections in the borough.

One customer in Nuneaton, who did not want to be named, said he has not had waste collection for more than a month - and is threatening to push the bin to Coventry to make sure it is emptied.

"I have six weeks of rubbish built up due to a strike that has nothing really to do with us," he said.

"I will push our commercial waste bin to Coventry to one of the collection points if I have to as it is beyond a joke over here."

The Town Hall is considering set-up recycling drop off sites in the borough and Cllr Sue Markham, cabinet member for public services, said they are looking at ways to help those hit by a lack of commercial waste collections.

“As a result of the strike action affecting our recycling crews, household waste services for residents are our focus at present," Cllr Markham said.

"Bulky waste services and commercial waste customers who are contracted with Coventry City Council are being affected by the action as well, and we apologise to them for the disruption this is causing.

“We are working as hard as we can to find ways to help all customers, and are looking into other options all the time. We ask people to bear with us if they can. However, commercial customers can of course make other arrangements for collections by another provider, or can arrange to take their waste to a licenced waste carrier."

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Bin rounds in areas of Nuneaton at 'absolute limits' as collections keep being missed



Extra bin rounds are needed in Nuneaton's development capital as collections keep being missed. The Weddington and St Nicolas areas of town have seen around 3,000 extra homes built - with a further 3,000 more planned.

This is having an impact on weekly bin collections claims councillor Keith Kondakor, who said that the sheer number of streets that have to be visited means that some are missing out - with some missing collections two weeks in a row.

"For the last decade we have had considerable house building in the Weddington and St Nicolas wards and one of the many impacts of this has been the reduced reliability of the Wednesday waste and recycling collections which serve this expanding area," he said.

"The problems have become worse as we have had impacts of the ongoing pandemic and industrial action by some of the Coventry City Council based recycling lorry drivers."

He said that he has asked for the routes to be reconfigured and for some of the collections to be made on a different day - Tuesdays instead of Wednesdays in Weddington.

But councillor Sue Markham, the cabinet member responsible for bin collections, was quick to remind Cllr Kondakor that the council had agreed to expand its refuse collection to help keep up with the demand from new housing estates.

It will cost £270,000 and was included in the Conservative budget in February.

Cllr Markham said that the waste rounds are at their 'absolute limits' in terms of capacity but said they are working to amend routes and these should come into force later this year.

"Labour's massive development in Weddington and St Nicolas has caused massive pressures on the east of Nuneaton in terms of services and infrastructure, all of which Labour failed to properly plan for in dumping 6,000 houses in the area," she said.

"It has been left for this Conservative administration to deal with this Labour legacy of failure on a number of fronts and sadly this also includes the waste rounds, which are now at their absolute limits of their current capacity.

"We have faced the challenge head on, we have budgeted for a new collection round, equipment and crew.

"This will tie in with reconfiguration work for waste and recycling works which we are currently undertaking. We are now working with amended route schedules and maps which account for the new builds including project schemes within the Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council area.

"We are currently testing the routes to ensure that they are achievable. Once we are satisfied with this, communications will commence to inform residents of changes and prepare information accordingly.

"We are therefore looking for amended routes to commence later this year."