Wrexham: Residents will not have council tax refund after bin and recycling collection strikes

People living in Wrexham who have not had their bins emptied or recycling picked up from the kerbside for weeks will not get a council tax refund.

Refuse collectors who are members of the Unite union have walked out in a row over wages.

They have been offered a pay offer of £1,925 but the union say it is not enough and is a real terms pay cut for workers.

Wrexham Council said it has received complaints and are doing the best they can but there will be no money back for the reduction in service.

A spokesman for the local authority said "Council Tax is not a service charge – it’s a taxation raised by the council that contributes towards the funding of all council services such as education, refuse collection, transportation and social care.

"Council Tax is not a direct payment for these services and as such there is no provision for a Council Tax refund on the basis that a bin collection or collections have not been made."

This week, Wrexham Council introduced a new system to try and collect more waste.

However, it said on "most days we have less than 20% of our normal workforce available for bin collections due to the strikes."

Those working are council staff, who are not members of Unite and not agency workers, the local authority say.

Many Wrexham residents have asked why some addresses had waste collected but others have not for more than three weeks.

The Independent run council has denied "favouring one street over another".

"This is entirely dependent on how many staff we have available, and the amount of rubbish we’re collecting.

"There are days when we just haven’t been able to complete our scheduled collection routes with the staff and bin wagons we have available, and so we have to try and catch up the following day or as soon as we can.

"Sometimes there are other factors too. For example, narrow roads can require a small bin wagon, and so we sometimes have to wait until we have a small wagon available for those streets.

"If one street has its bins emptied, but a neighbouring street doesn’t, there will be very practical reasons for that – it’s not that we’re favouring one street over another."

Members of Unite have voted to continue their strike for a further six weeks, returning to work on November 24.

Whilst they are out, they are being paid £70 a day strike pay by their trade union.

There has been one formal meeting between trade union representatives and the chief executive of the council and its leader, Mark Pitchard.

Both sides recognise the need to resolve the strike action and they will meet again today, Wednesday, 11 October.

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