The Puzzling Saga of Southend’s Refuse Collection and the Quest for Clarity
This is not the most exciting subject, but an important one for all Southend residents: ‘Refuse Collection’. ‘Whoopee,’ I hear you cry.
Now, if you, like me, have someone in your household who reads our local Echo, you might have heard about our city’s refuse contract ending in 2023 and the delays and peculiar decisions being made by Southend Council. Our council has had to fund additional expenses to keep Veolia on until 2025, as no final decisions were able to be agreed upon… Shocking, I know!
Resident Investigates
Now, I must have been bored one morning and decided to trawl through the council’s minutes on their website to try and establish when and what had been decided about a new refuse contractor for our city and the impact. I was concerned that bi-weekly collections and wheelie bins may be introduced – as all will agree, many areas of our borough are HMOs/flats/terraced houses with no area to place or store wheelie bins. Of course, some parts of the borough do have space, but not all do.
My real frustration is that the council started the review process in 2018 (yes, 2018) when they knew that the Veolia contract was to expire in 2024 (as mentioned, now extended until 2025). I contacted the council in February to establish what had been agreed and if residents had been consulted and why so long for decisions to be made and why Veolia was not reinstated.
Unanswered Questions!
Sadly, no questions were answered. I requested in February 2024: (i) Has a new contractor been appointed? No response. (ii) What terms of service have been agreed? No response. (iii) Has there been public consultation? No response. (I located in the labyrinth of minutes in April 2023 that public consultation was ruled out as this would be a hindrance – yes, you read correctly, a hindrance).
Another finding in the vault of minutes – April 2023 at the Cabinet meeting, it was acknowledged that the new contract was more expensive than the original contract! How can this be acceptable when the council is already in serious debt, more taxpayers’ money wasted? Why, at no point, did the council acknowledge their mistakes and re-engage with Veolia?
I contacted the council again in April 2024, and none of my questions were answered. The main question being: what has been decided, who has been appointed, why the delays, and how different wards have different space requirements/restrictions to be managed.
Elusive Answers
So, if you haven’t fallen asleep yet or let the dog out at this point, it appears that as of April when the councillor was asked straightforward questions of what service has been agreed, the response was ‘Final details have not yet been agreed,’ and a ‘detailed assessment of roads and properties will be completed to determine suitability for bags or bins.’ Surely, an assessment must have been completed prior to a new contractor being appointed? No response. As to if collections will change to bi-weekly, again they would not commit, but mentioned environmental issues and that other boroughs have introduced bi-weekly and that fly-tipping reduces.
Service Stalemate
This critical refuse service replacement has been under review since 2018 – 6 years of debating and arguing and posturing (it doesn’t matter what party you believe in, they have all meddled and not come together for the best solution for Southend). There are important environmental issues that need to be addressed, but unfortunately, Southend needs the best refuse collection solution to try and keep the city sanitized/litter-free and without numerous wheelie bins littering our highly densely populated central wards.
Call for Accountability
I’ll now get off my soapbox, and I hope after 6 years and needless additional costs, our councillors will make the right decisions for our city and keep Southend at the heart of the decision-making and not themselves.
Take Action:
I urge all who care, to contact your local councillor to request details of who the new provider is, what service your ward will receive bi-weekly/bins/sacks?
Why was Veolia not reinstated?
Costs incurred to date, and why a 6-year delay for a major contractor appointment?
It will only take 10 minutes of your time.
By Josie Hewitt (Local Resident)