Thursday 15 April 2010

How Councils Deal With Complaints

Dustmen have refused to collect a full recycling bin from a couple's house because it was 'contaminated' by six food pips.
Which rather amazed the owner, who hadn’t eaten anything with pips in.
Melvyn Sylvester was amazed to discover his bin had been left untouched outside his home in Andover, Hampshire, at the weekend.

Binmen had left a sticker on it stating they could not accept the bin as it contained food and was therefore contaminated.

Mr Sylvester, 54, said the bin contained no food except for six small pips sitting on a pizza box.
Which anyone could have thrown in his bin, since it didn’t come with a padlock.

So, first the council tried lying:
Initially the council claimed the bin had not been emptied because it contained plastic carrier bags which were not recyclable.
But its own binmen had given the lie to that, by attaching a tag claiming that the reason was because it contained food.

Aha! Could that pizza box save them?
But it then stated the bin contained pizza - a claim Mr Sylvester denies.

'There was no pizza in the packet. It was empty,' he said.
So they finally came to empty his bin, and dismissed the whole matter by claiming that ‘procedures had been followed’.
A council spokesman said: 'The council would wish to emphasis that the collection crew followed guidance appropriately and left a bin tag indicating the reason that the bin had not been emptied on that occasion.'
If you follow the guidance, you’re golden, no matter what else you do…
She said the bin was emptied after it was confirmed it did not contain food.
And after you had wasted god knows how much of the taxpayer’s time and your own time trying to justify what your bin men did….

Wouldn’t it have been quicker just to take the damn thing away in the first place, since that’s what you ended up doing anyway?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If the town hall won't take away your rubbish, take your rubbish to the town hall!

Uncle Marvo said...

I have no bin service. I am happy with that, because I pay no council tax.

I separate everything and drive it, round about once a month, to the recycling centre and put it all in the correct bins.

The bin "service" here is privately run, therefore they will try to make a profit. It is a f***ing service, there is no profit to be made out of shit.

Moriarty said...

OT - More apparent problems appearing from modern food fads.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8620231.stm

JuliaM said...

"If the town hall won't take away your rubbish, take your rubbish to the town hall!"

I wonder if we'll see anyone do this?

Nah, probably just flytip.

"More apparent problems appearing from modern food fads."

Oh, the perils of listening to 'experts':

"..."Children under five have specific needs, and should not have low-fat diets as their growing bodies need fat and carbohydrates."..."

What happened to 'feed a growing body'..?

Uncle Marvo said...

"I wonder if we'll see anyone do this?"

Done it. Our council issued all the pubs with stupid plastic glasses with some inane bollocks about cigarette litter printed on them, after the ban.

Me and a load of mates filled them up with dog ends and delivered them personally, asking for a replacement glass.

Yes, it was me.

Chuckles said...

Another nice little earner just stuck it's head above the parapet. It is incredible how the received wisdom trumps everything.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/northamptonshire/8625442.stm

Uncle Marvo said...

Wonder what the kids will look like 9 months after the Ash Cloud?