Well ... There's A Turn Up For The Books

[niall Y]

Here it is a lovely day - the sun is shining for a change; a fair few joggers have been compensating for yesterdays over indulgence; and our bins have been emptied by the council !
I know it is scarcely believable. And it was an everything day.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Smart move by the council - most people will have not have remembered to put them out.

 

[niall Y]

Oh! ... so cynical, in one so young.

 

[Lons]

our bins have been emptied by the council !

Considering that today is Boxing Day that's unusual, certainly none of the LAs around here have been collecting. I didn't realise any of them treated a public holiday as a normal day. They would have had to pay special rates, possibly double time and I would question if that's a wise use of council tax payers money.

 

[misterfish]

Our council send a reminder message the afternoon before a bin collection is due.

 

[XTiffy]

Our Council outsourced the bin collection years ago and we had our bins collected yesterday, and yes we knew. The council did not have to pay extra as no doubt it is part of the contract. No doubt most council workers will have a full week off, which to me is a misuse of public money.

 

[Lons]

Our Council outsourced the bin collection years ago and we had our bins collected yesterday, and yes we knew. The council did not have to pay extra as no doubt it is part of the contract. No doubt most council workers will have a full week off, which to me is a misuse of public money.

I wasn't aware that some councils outsource collection so makes sense.. Ours doesn't have the week off they just collect a couple of days late. I.e. this week collection would have been Thursday but now Saturday. Also interesting to note that West Sussex send reminders, a good idea.

We have a pretty good service here tbh. Reliable and the guys are pleasant and run everywhere so work hard. One of the regulars is well into his 60s and as fit as a lop.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Our collections are outsources - I thought many councils did this. The council may pay no extra for boxing day collections - the contractor may have included it in their costings and may even prefer to spread the load rather than catch up missed days.

As a householder the most important collections are when most rubbish is generated - Xmas being a prime example - and I would be delighted if the council collected - our doesn't!.

One poster above mentioned that their council sent a reminder message - an excellent idea as different bits of waste are collected at different intervals - some every 2 weeks, some 3, disrupted during holiday periods etc.

 

[Stigmorgan]

When i was a refuse collector many years ago we had the public holidays off and worked the following Saturday to make up the missed collections, if there were 2 days off in the week then crews would help eachother out to get the job done, we didn't mind as it was job and knock back then, paid 7am to 4 pm but on a normal day we could be done and home by 2 at the latest, everyone wanted to be on the glass collection though as they had 1 day in their schedule (glass collection was done every 4 weeks) where they would be done and home by 10am

 

[MikeJhn]

Here it is a lovely day - the sun is shining for a change; a fair few joggers have been compensating for yesterdays over indulgence; and our bins have been emptied by the council !
I know it is scarcely believable. And it was an everything day.

I head about naked jogging witch is running without a GPS or ear buds listening to music, I wished someone had told me that an hour ago, its cold.

 

[Richard_C]

No doubt most council workers will have a full week off, which to me is a misuse of public money.

That statement is completely wrong. Employees are entitled to a certain number of holidays, 28 minimum under legislation but most UK employers offer contracts with 33, made up of 25 days annual plus 8 bank holidays. By closing offices between Christmas and New Year the LA isn't giving more holiday, it's saying of your 33 you must take 7 or 8 (depending on how the weekends fall each year) of those are Christmas. That makes business sense, demand for most services is low in that week, they will have urgent response arrangements for environment, safeguarding and so on. Why would it be better/less wasteful to have everything open and all the staff in during a quiet time knowing that they might then take time off in far busier periods.

I wish people would stop taking cheap shots at public sector employers based on prejudice, lack of knowledge and an abject failure to think things through.