Emergency meeting planned as thousands of Swindon homes miss bin collections

Thousands of houses, flats and other properties in Swindon have missed waste collections this summer due to staff shortages.

An emergency meeting is being held on Monday 21 August, because of the serious problems people have faced with waste and recycling collections over the summer.

A report to the council’s overview and scrutiny committee will tell councillors that as many as 10,000 properties’ bins were being collected late over the last six weeks.

It says there have been significant issues with staffing, especially with recruiting qualified HGV drivers.

The report states: “During this period the service collected still collected 98-99 per cent of allocated work (dropping 1 or 2 per cent each day due to driver capacity).

This small percentage then rolls on to the following day. As such, after three to four weeks of running at slightly lower capacity, the service was in a position where it was significantly behind.

The report adds: “At its peak over the past six weeks up to 28th July 2023 the number of dropped properties was in the region of 10,500 or 30 per cent of work rolling over to the next day.”

It continues to highlight: “These problems have not been unique to Swindon. Industry colleagues within the borough have been reporting a lack of access to drivers.

"There have also been well-publicised challenges facing North East Lincolnshire Council who recently had to suspend recycling collections due to capacity issues.”

The chairman of the scrutiny committee, Councillor Dale Heenan said: “A report written by council officers sets out the facts and highlights that two weeks ago, 10,500 collections were being missed every day. Hundreds of streets are still being missed today. It is staggering.

“There are going to be lots of questions to ask because it looks like by refusing to acknowledge the issue and make a decision to suspend collections to allow the service to catch-up, rubbish is now blowing around in our streets, and residents are complaining in their hundreds.”

Coun Heenan added: “If any residents have questions which they would like answered by those responsible, please let me know by midday on Monday 21 August.”

Credit: Aled Thomas, Local Democracy Reporting Service