SNOW: Cotswold waste collections cancelled again

9:10am Tuesday 22nd January 2013 in News By Ian Craig

WASTE collections due to take place in the Cotswolds today have been cancelled due to the snow.

Many side roads and pavements are still hazardous and more snow is forecast to fall today.

No collections have taken place in the district since Thursday.

Cotswold District Council’s offices in Cirencester and Moreton-in-Marsh are open as normal along with the Corinium Museum and council-run leisure facilities in Cirencester, Tetbury, Fairford, Bourton-on-the-Water and Chipping Campden.

Comments(25)

StrongInTheArm says...
10:13am Tue 22 Jan 13

No rubbish collections due to health and safety.. which will mean excess rubbish being built up, leading to bin bags outside of the wheelie bin and/or lids not entirely closed (they might be open an entire half centimetre!) which in turn will mean rubbish is not collected due to health and safety!

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Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum says...
11:21am Tue 22 Jan 13

I am staggered that people can even contemplate not working due to a bit of snow .... 75 - 100mm of snow.

What is happening to this country?

Due to the 24 hour a day, all encompassing media saturation, do we build ourselves up into a frenzy??

Imagine if there was no internet, no satellite TV, (only 3 channels like in the 80's) and particularly no social media outlets.

Would the schools be closed in advacne ..... would trian services be disrupted... would the rubbish remian uncolectred ..... would there be panic buying in the supermarkets?

Of course not.

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emma_1990 says...
4:05pm Tue 22 Jan 13

The workers shouldn't be expected to drive the lorries along the roads as most are extremely icy and dangerous. Also the workers having to empty the bins would be at high risk of injury due to the ice.

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Jessica Rabbit says...
5:21pm Tue 22 Jan 13

Perhaps if CDC cleared the roads of snow in the housing estates and cul-de sacs then the lorries could get in and out with no risk! The main roads are all clear, so they could collect from there at the very least.
I can't believe how quickly services shut down... I have to go to work, if I don't I will be sacked... If I can get to Swindon/Chelt/Glos everyday in the snow then why can't a lorry from Ciren, collect rubbish in Ciren? It's crazy!!

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Jessica Rabbit says...
5:23pm Tue 22 Jan 13

Also Emma, I'm at high risk of injury due to ice, as is everyone else who ventures outside, whether that be for work or leisure!

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StrongInTheArm says...
5:26pm Tue 22 Jan 13

If you get sacked for not getting in due to snow, then you have a case to take your employer to tribunal! They don't have to pay you, and can insist you take it as holiday, but certainly can't sack you.

Back to the point in hand - It's not that the binmen wouldn't be safe - I can understand that having tried to walk on the pavement outside my house - it's that after all this, they will not pick up a black bag outside of the bin due to health and safety - but they will pick it up if it's in a biege bag!

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Jessica Rabbit says...
5:39pm Tue 22 Jan 13

Good point, I never thought of that.... You're absolutely right, once my bin is full where do I put my rubbish? Surely they will have to collect black bin bags in this case? Perhaps CDC can let us know.

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emma_1990 says...
7:01pm Tue 22 Jan 13

They will as I believe has been stated in one of the posts on the website collect side waste.

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emma_1990 says...
7:02pm Tue 22 Jan 13

They also have to be extremely careful when it comes to health and safety due to accidents in recent years from open bin lids.

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daver22 says...
8:42pm Tue 22 Jan 13

Lets get rid of the bins then and use bags all the time, then the bins wouldn't be a safety hazrd

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thecourier says...
9:20pm Tue 22 Jan 13

If the roads and pavements were as clear as they are at cdc offices there wouldn't be a problem. Its safer to drive than walk at the moment.

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Fairford res says...
10:50am Wed 23 Jan 13

emma_1990 wrote:
The workers shouldn't be expected to drive the lorries along the roads as most are extremely icy and dangerous. Also the workers having to empty the bins would be at high risk of injury due to the ice.
So Emma, workers should not be expected to work in these conditions?

What mollycoddled world do you live in?

This is the real world, people don't work maybe people should not get paid. If this were to happen I bet you would get killed in the rush at the local waste depot getting out of the way of waste trucks moving.

A dose of reality needed for you and CDC.

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Fairford res says...
10:58am Wed 23 Jan 13

Let's look at this a different way.
Waste cannot be collected because of dangerous roads, paths etc?

Who is responsible for clearing such paths?

Clear or grit the paths (other than where shops are located) and bingo. Waste collected, milk delivered, post delivered, people get to the shops life is normal.

Difficult, no not at all just a bit of forward thinking.

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Olly Cromwell says...
11:01am Wed 23 Jan 13

Shouldn't Cotswold District Council have invested in snow chains and ice boots for its operatives?

The postman delivered today.

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carebear says...
2:40pm Thu 24 Jan 13

if the workers cant empty the bins cos its too dangerous then what do they do all day? why cant they grit the pavements? it would give them something to do!

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Fairford res says...
7:04pm Thu 24 Jan 13

Its because they all get sent home and their hours are "banked". Which means that they dont get paid overtime to pick up 2 lots of rubbish in one go when it restarts.

Yes this is actually from CDC press office.

You could not make it up.

CDC have "estimated that there will be approximately be double the amount of waste to be picked up when collection restart". Looks like it was another productive Cabinet meeting to work that one out.
Its gets better or worse depending on which way you look at it

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Council Taxpayer says...
12:39am Fri 25 Jan 13

Jessica Rabbit wrote:
Also Emma, I'm at high risk of injury due to ice, as is everyone else who ventures outside, whether that be for work or leisure!
Jessica Rabbit has a point....she obviously remembers the tragedy in Watership Down.

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Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum says...
5:50am Fri 25 Jan 13

I have had a 506 word reply from CDC, trying to justify their actions.

I have read it a couple of times, a few points made are fair, but the tone of the e-mail suggests CDC are making excuses.

Excuses ……..that their vehicles are too big.

Excuses ……..they want to deter residents leaving waste on the kerbside

Excuses ……. that the gritting isnt CDC’s responsibility.

Excuses ………that there is no legislation in place which governs the frequency of collections or indeed the number of collections a household is entitled to in a calendar year

Excuses ….. that they will collect double next time … (no ****, Sherlock)

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Council Taxpayer says...
11:35am Sat 26 Jan 13

The £141,000-a-year Chief Executive of Cotswold District Council is Mr David Neudegg who also happens to hold the same position at neighbouring West Oxfordshire District Council.
Well...guess what? The bin men are out this Saturday morning in West Oxfordshire collecting the rubbish they couldn't get to during the week.
The sun is shining here in the Cotswolds just as it is in West Oxfordshire so where is our catch-up service?
Mr Neudegg's CDC website is still instructing the "second class" ratepayers here to continue hauling their bin bags off to emergency collection points.
Why the dual standards when Mr Nuedegg is obscenely well paid to provide identical levels of service in both council areas?
Perhaps the ratepayers of West Oxfordshire are not prepared to be walked all over by uncaring fat-cat bureaucrats or maybe our head of rubbish, Cllr Fowles, is too busy serving customers at his village shop to put his boot up the bottoms of CDC officers and the Ubico bin men who have had a sleep-in this morning while their opposite numbers in Oxfordshire are hard at work serving the community after a very lazy week.

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David Broad says...
2:03pm Sat 26 Jan 13

Yet Lib Dem controlled Cheltenham also cancelled collections, does that mean they are also in your "SecondClass" category Counciltaxpayer.
Personally I think the Davids ( Neudegg and Fowles) did the right thing cancelling collections and not trying to play catch up, even today conditions are not that good around Chedworth, and if we stick to the collection days then everyone knows what to do, it's when you start ad libbing that confusion reigns and bins get missed and folk get miffed.

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Olly Cromwell says...
4:38pm Sat 26 Jan 13

Cllr Broad has become the official apologist for crappy service.

How can you justify losing a complete week of collections?

The commercial waste truck operative (not related to Ubico) was out collecting on Thursday!

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Council Taxpayer says...
4:51pm Sat 26 Jan 13

Wrong again Cllr Broad. Cheltenham Borough Council did the same as West Oxfordshire in today's vastly improved weather conditions and had emergency teams out collecting black bin bags left out by households.
So I am afraid CDC is left exposed among neighbours as a council that couldn't give a **** about its taxpayers.
It is not just one week without collections. Homes that missed a collection last week will actually go for a whole month without a full collection just because bureaucrats at CDC cannot work out a catch-up schedule.
We pay full council tax and full business rates but receive a second rate service. This administration's complacency rivals that of George Osborne who is sitting on his hands as the nation slides into a third recession.

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Council Taxpayer says...
4:59pm Sat 26 Jan 13

I am a bit surprised that the WGS website has automatically blanked out the mild word beginning with d and ending in n that is also in the bible as a warning to those whose sins can lead to an eternity in hell. Since I assume the site is programmed to do the same if I repeat the word, I can only give the reader the above clue. This rather strange censorship gives the impression that I was using a far more potent word which I would never dream of using in print, not even with the use of asterisks.

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Iansky says...
1:51pm Mon 28 Jan 13

We lived in Berlin for many years and the weather there in winter is often minus 20C and heavy snow.
Not once in 11yrs did the public services (refuse / post) fail to operate.
All roads / pavements were cleared and gritted so totally safe to walk on!
What de we have here in Ciren, a collection of complete incompetence endorsed by a cluster of council clowns who just want to pass the buck and hide behind supposed health and safety - in most cases prior preparation and planning plus good implementation mitigate the risks and allow services to be maintained. I suspect the lack of forethought and poor implementation of gritting was an attempt to "save money" and the council adopted an attitiude of reactive rather than proactive measures.
I wonder how many older people who did venture out fell over on untreated roads they were forced to walk on as the pavements were lethal?
The council seems to be chalking up a catalogue of "own goals" - sad!

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userBJones says...
8:08pm Mon 28 Jan 13

Get off your peddle stools and view these on YouTube. Enough Said!!!!!

Just Type into YouTube

Kirklees bin wagon skidding on ice and snow
UK refuse lorry skidding on ice
Refuse truck on ice
Dustbin lorry stuck in the snow

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