Plans to collect festive rubbish cause new fury (From Warrington Guardian)

Plans to collect festive rubbish cause new fury

REFUSE collectors in Vale Royal are furious that they are being expected to work extra hours when the weekly Christmas waste collections are introduced in the borough.

Jim Kearns, the region's GMB union representative, said waste service company SITA expected staff to work on bank holidays over the holiday period.

Vale Royal Borough Council is already preparing to publicise the change to the collection system.

But Jim said there was a major disagreement between SITA and the refuse collectors and it was by no means certain that the weekly collections would go ahead.

He said: "The winter was meant to be payback time for the workers after they did long hours over the summer, but SITA won't honour that agreement.

"They will have to put in a lot of extra hours with no overtime pay."

Jim said the change also raised the question of why they could not go back to weekly collections on a regular basis.

He said: "The fortnightly collection appears to be sacred and we can never revert to weekly collections. If they can do it some of the time, why can't they do it all the time?"

He said going back to the old system would be the best thing for everyone.

Jim said: "I walked through Northwich the other day and some of the back streets look like tips. They're an absolute disgrace."

He also said the change to the collections would confuse the public after they had just got used to fortnightly collections. He asked: "How many people will remember? The whole issue is going to cause extra confusion."

A spokeswoman for Vale Royal Borough Council said it had always been in its contract with SITA to provide additional waste collections over the Christmas period.

She said: "We are able to do that because we are withdrawing the brown bin collection for garden waste. We intend to inform residents about it with stickers on bins."

Nobody from SITA was available for comment.

rbabington@guardiangrp.co.uk