* The waste collection service could return in early September, says a council chief.
Denbighshire
County Council is looking towards a re-launch date of the first Saturday in
September for its “pop-up” household waste collection service in the Pavilion
car park.
The
suggestion of a likely date for the re-start of the facility, which was
suspended back in March as a result of fears for the safety of council workers from
Covid-19, comes in an email from the authority’s chief executive Judith
Greenhalgh to Clwyd South Senedd Member Ken Skates explaining the position.
Mr
Skates has allowed llanblogger to see a copy of the email and to quote its
contents.
Ever
since the service was withdrawn there has been a strong local clamour for it to
be swiftly restored rather than local people having to take their rubbish on a
round-trip of more than 20 to the Ruthin recycling centre.
There
was a breakthrough earlier this week when local county councillor Graham Timms
told llanblogger he had been informed by council chiefs the service would be coming
back, probably in mid-August.
In
her email to Mr Skates, Judith Greenhalgh says: “I have also received a number
of emails from a small group of residents in Llangollen who are not happy that
we have not yet been able to resume the service.
“The
group are very active on social media, have submitted several FOIs, and have
written to various MPs and AMs on the matter.
“I
should start by clarifying that we have explained the situation to them several
times, either directly, or via the local ward Members, who have been kept
informed at all times.
“The
reason behind the service being suspended is simply Covid-19. As a
consequence of lockdown, we had to ask several members of our waste team
(including a number of HGV drivers) to refrain from work due to underlying
health conditions which made them vulnerable to Covid-19.
“We
therefore had to prioritise our most critical waste services and used our
remaining staff to keep the most critical waste service running.
“By
doing that, we were able to maintain our household residual, recycling and food
waste services during the entire lockdown period.
“The
other reason is this service requires our staff to come into close proximity
with residents, and we were concerned that the service could not be delivered
safely. At the very least, it would have placed our staff at an increased
risk, which would (in turn) jeopardise our critical household waste
collections.”
The
email adds: “We have been very clear that something needed to change in order
for us to start planning to re-open the pop-up service. Specifically,
there were two things that needed to happen:
“a) Relaxation/removal
of social distancing measures by Welsh Government; and/or
b) A
change in our guidance about staff needing to refrain from attending their
place of work due to underlying health conditions.
“We
have recently had a change in the 2nd element, and we are now starting to work
towards bringing vulnerable people back into the workplace, even if they have
underlying health conditions (subject to additional risk assessments and
occupational health approval).
“We
therefore expect to have more staff capacity from mid-to late August. However,
we are trying to grant summer holiday leave to those staff that have not had a
break since the start of lockdown.
“Therefore
we are working towards a re-launch date of the first Saturday in September for
the Dee Valley pop-up service.
“I
must stress that there is still work to do to ensure that we can re-start the
service safely. Social distancing is still a requirement, and we will
need to develop risk assessments, and engage with staff, unions and our partner
(CAD) to ensure that everyone is satisfied that it safe to resume the
service.
“A
key remaining risk is the handling of waste taken directly from the public, and
it is extremely important that we are able to keep our operational staff
distant from the public to prevent Covid 19 impacting on our core frontline
service.
“We
have informed the local ward Members about this plan, and I’m sure that the
message has already been communicated to the residents who have contacted
you.
“We
will be issuing some external communications about it once we are more certain
about the plans and, more specifically, when we are more confident about the
start date.”
Clwyd
South MS Ken Skates, said: "I am pleased the council is working towards
re-starting this service as soon as possible.
“Thank
you to councillors Graham Timms and Mel Mile for keeping this on the council's
agenda and for their hard work on behalf of local residents."
