By Andrew Topping, Local Democracy Reporter
Mansfield’s mayor has defended the district council’s garden waste collection service after one opposition councillor described it as “nothing short of atrocious”.
Andy Abrahams (Lab) was questioned at Mansfield District Council’s full council meeting on Tuesday (March 8) after the authority reduced the cost of the service by £5 from this month.
The measure, approved in the budget in January, takes the cost of the service down from £31 to £26 for all homes in the district.
Speaking in the meeting, Councillor Rob Elliman (Con), who represents Oakham, welcomed the move and said it is “right”.
However, he told the mayor it “does not anywhere near reflect” the number of missed collections over the past year.
“The brown bin service over the past year has been nothing short of atrocious at times,” he said.
“To offer a reduced fee is right but the £5 discount does not anywhere near reflect the multiple missed collections that residents had to suffer.
“Can you please confirm if you think this is fair and reflects the poor service that residents received?”
Responding to Cllr Elliman, Mr Abrahams said the authority missed 47 out of 496 scheduled garden waste collections between April last year and now – roughly 9.4 per cent of all rounds.
But he said the authority’s collections crews returned to 15 rounds on weekends, meaning 6.5 per cent of garden waste bins were not emptied at all this year.
In neighbouring Ashfield, the authority did not miss a single bin collection in 2021/22.
Mr Abrahams added: “Your question is not an accurate reflection of the excellent job our waste operatives have done in what has been the most challenging of times during the Covid pandemic.
“Garden waste costs £30 a year to residents, scheduled to receive 19 collections across the season.
“This equates to £1.58 per collection so, whilst it’s true some collections were impacted more than others, some will have missed some and others not at all.
“On average, 6.5 per cent of missed collections equates to every property missing one collection at a cost of £1.58.”
He added that, of the 24 different collection routes in the district, only two rounds missed three collections throughout the year, with six missing two collections and 15 rounds missing one collection.
He said the £5 reduction from April gives all homes the discount of missing an equivalent of three collections for the year.
In response, Cllr Elliman asked for detailed figures to be provided to him outside the meeting and said it “doesn’t reflect some of the issues” he’s had reported to him.
He added: “Can you confirm how Ashfield managed to not miss any collections, yet we obviously did miss collections.”
Responding to the second question, Mr Abrahams said: “I don’t have that information to hand, but what I would say is the general public have a better idea of the service they received.
“Our refuse collectors have been the link through lockdown with many of our communities and they’ve actually done more than just being refuse collectors.
“I don’t think it’s a deliberately poor service, they actually also deliver a community service.”
The Labour-led council issued a statement on Tuesday confirming a glass and a garden waste collection had been missed on the same street due to “disruption”.
The bins were rescheduled for collection on Wednesday (March 9).
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank residents for their patience and understanding at this time”, the authority added.
