Wednesday, April 25, 2007

When sorry's the only word...

Well done to the Head of Waste Services at Lincolnshire County Council who was big enough to say 'sorry' after a bit of a cock-up over recycling of newspapers in Spalding.

Gordon Oglesbee complained to the Spalding Guardian that he had taken a pile of old newspapers "several inches thick" to the household waste recycling centre, but was told by an official to put them in the skip destined for landfill.

Martyn Hands publicly apologised, saying:

The household waste recycling centre is there to recycle all of the materials mentioned by the concerned member of the public, paper in particular.

The fact that he was unable to do so is a serious service failure and the complaint is legitimate. We apologise accordingly.

The situation has arisen because of problems with a transport contractor which have resulted in many containers not being emptied in a timely manner.

However, appropriate action is immediately being taken to address this.
Of course, Mr Oglesbee was quite right to complain. It sounds like more of a glitch that shouldn't have happened rather than a "serious service failure", but it was nonetheless refreshing to see that Mr Hands has apologised on behalf of the county council.

Now, I hope he gets his finger out and sorts the recycling debacle in The Deepings that I've posted on ad-nauseum!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you wade through the Institute of Waste Management report, they want to charge us for going to the recycling dump as well as for rubbish collection.

What a gift to the Michael Oakeshotts of this world who just dump it and leave others to clear up.

Anonymous said...

Brynley - I will now read the report. Should they charge for visits to a recycling centre this will most certainly lead to dumping on verges and farms and spoil the countryside.

Phil - the Spalding recycling centre is superb. The staff are excellent and I am most surprised that this incident occurred.

fairdealphil said...

michael:

here in the deepings, we already have to pay to go to our recycling centre.

it's privately owned and the local authorities do nothing to promote it - despite the fact that councils spend a king's ransom to private operators to operate "council" recycling centres.

fairdealphil said...

Liz

the spalding recycling centre should be superb, given the money that has been lavished on it...i have the figures somewhere but not to hand.