But it really IS getting better say the Council

There are still thousands of people in Ealing reporting missed rubbish collections - six months after the new waste contractor took over.

Ealing's Scrutiny Panel will be meeting Enterprise on Thursday (15th November) to discuss how the company is performing.

They took over from May Gurney in April but the transition has been extremely bumpy. Residents were furious that green waste was being left uncollected and the service appeared to be in chaos forcing the Council to apologise for the 'teething problems'.

In August there were 5154 missed collections* (579 in 2011) which were blamed on the new fleet of lorries taking over kerbside collections and 'fine tuning' of the rounds.

A month later there were still 2334 missed collections this compares to 435 in 2011.

Despite the figures, Earl Mckenzie, Assistant Director Street Services, who compiled the report, believes things are getting better :

''There is still work to work to do in relation to reducing missed recycling collections... However, with the full deployment of the new collection vehicles and improvements in contractor supervision, management and administration, indications statistically are that the collection services are now better equipped to support a continued reduction in missed collection numbers.''

Latest figures (for October) will be presented before the meeting. The report can be viewed here

Enterprise, has been instructed to improve its performance after disappointing results in the first weeks of the new service.

Pre-empting this week's Scrutiny meeting, Council Leader, Councillor Julian Bell, and cabinet member for Transport and Environment, Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, together with staff from Enterprise have conducted several spot-checks.

Local ward councillors were also invited to attend.

Councillor Mahfouz said: “These services have been steadily improving after major problems when Enterprise initially took over the contract, but we are determined to ensure the highest possible standards are consistently achieved for residents.

“The spot checks are an important test and we are committed to continue them.”

However, Conservative spokesman on Transport and Environment Cllr Phil Taylor says:

“Cleansing services have been atrocious for four months and are merely unacceptably poor now. 

''After six months missed collections are 4 times worse, re-cycling is down 10% and there are twice as many dirty streets.” 

''As Councillors, we are seeing in our wards, that cleansing services are not what they should be.  The combination of poor cleaning and halving of the Envirocrime service has led to a visible increase in bags in the street and fly tipping.”

* figures after being unjustified by contractor

Are you happy with the rubbish service now? Has it improved? Discuss on the forum.

15th November 2012