Wedding date headache for city refuse collectors
THE head of Exeter's cleansing services says the date for next year's royal wedding has left the council with a major headache.
The date, Friday, April 29, has been made a bank holiday and comes a week after Good Friday. It means that some city residents may not have their rubbish picked up for four weeks.
Mike Trim said the city was not alone – rubbish chiefs up and down the country are also facing a major backlog.
Mr Trim told the Echo: "I just don't think William and Kate took waste collections into consideration when they were sorting through dates for their nuptials.
"In the recent shake-up to the waste collections in Exeter, we thought it would be best to change the system of how we catch up following a bank holiday.
"In the past a bank holiday has meant that everyone's waste collections becomes a day later than normal.
"But we decided that in future those who receive collections on a Monday would now be collected on the following Saturday, leaving everyone else's collections on the usual day."
The system means that three Saturdays are taken up with catch-up days because of Easter Monday and the May Bank Holiday.
This leaves the problem of when the catch up days will be for the two missed Friday collections.
Mr Trim said: "Our priority is to do the best we can for our residents. We will have talks with our employees and the unions about the possibility of working on the day of the wedding.
"We will also have to talk to Devon County Council about the possible opening of the transfer station for the waste out at Greendale.
"Transfer stations are restricted as to when they can open on bank holidays but the day of the wedding is a public holiday rather than a bank holiday.
"The waste has to be taken from the transfer station to the landfill site at Heathfield, near Newton Abbot so we will also have to talk to Viridor which operates that about it opening.
"It is not the case that we can just collect the waste in Exeter and leave in on the bin lorries – they collect more than one lorry load a day anyway.
"It is all very complicated – but at least we do have a few months to sort things out."
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by Old Git, France
Friday, December 03 2010, 11:36AM
“Nick - if your refuse is collected on a Tuesday you'll be alright unless they introduce an Easter Tuesday or give a day off for pancake day.”
by B Wax, Devon
Friday, December 03 2010, 9:31AM
“Typical bureaucrat - another reason to do nothing.”
by Nick, Devon
Friday, December 03 2010, 8:52AM
“In my part of Devon the bin-men only work on Tuesdays.”
by Old Git, France
Friday, December 03 2010, 6:53AM
“in our village in France our refuse is collected on Mondays. Although France has more 'Fete' days than UK Bank Holidays it doesn't change the day of the collection. I don't know what their contract is but they don't seem to object. Perhaps they like having a job!”
by old Git, France
Friday, December 03 2010, 6:50AM
“David - it is REFUSE they collect. A REFUGE would be a place you could shelter in like a large cardboard box.
Oh - I see what you mean!”
by David, Exeter
Thursday, December 02 2010, 7:33PM
“I have the answer mr trim of how you can make up for all those future bankholiday weekends coming up, please collect refuge every sunday. Many businesses are busiest at weekends and create more refuge which is often left in overfilled council bins around the city every sunday. Why do we, the rate payers let the majority of council services shut every sunday ?”
by Rob, Polsloe - Exeter
Thursday, December 02 2010, 6:20PM
“I'm getting used to seeing rubbish around the neighbourhood nearly all the time now since the change over to fortnightly collections, I'm sure the wedding won't make it much worse than it is already.”
by Rob, Polsloe - Exeter
Thursday, December 02 2010, 6:20PM
“I'm getting used to seeing rubbish around the neighbourhood nearly all the time now since the change over to fortnightly collections, I'm sure the wedding won't make it much worse than it is already.”
by Willey Weasel, East Devon
Thursday, December 02 2010, 5:45PM
“Well I'm really surprised that the happy couple didn't think of this when they named the date. Just shows how inconsiderate these royals are - you would have thought that rubbish chiefs would have been the first people they consulted!”
by Just passing by, Exeter
Thursday, December 02 2010, 2:20PM
“The problem is that being a bank holiday, the employers are required to pay overtime to anyone working, with things as they are at present that needs to be agreed by someone higher up than Mike. It says in the article that they "will have talks with our employees and the unions about the possibility of working on the day of the wedding".”