Wirral Council waste management contractor, Biffa, issued a statement earlier this week stating that the backlog of missed collections has been cleared. This is not the case as many residents have been voicing their frustration that bins remain unemptied and that regular scheduled collections are still being missed.
Biffa had confirmed that all of the outstanding collections from last Thursday (November 19) and Friday (November 20) had been completed. But, residents say this is not the case.
They also claimed that the majority of bins have now been collected that were missed on Monday (November 23.) They blamed non-collection in some cases on restricted access on roads due to parked vehicles.
Iris Matthews said, “I live in CH41 [our] grey bins SHOULD have been emptied on the 20th November and we are still waiting, so they haven’t cleared the backlog.”
Another Wirral resident on Facebook commented that, ” [My bin] was due to be collected last Thursday – it still hasn’t, so I do know that there are ongoing problems.” Another stated that, “[The bins] definitely haven’t [been emptied.] Ours was supposed to be emptied on Monday!! I’d like to know how they decided which roads to leave!”
Natasha Jones said, “Half [of my] street in Rock Ferry [has] literally just been done, hoping they [will] come back up and do my side!!!”
It isn’t just the backlog that isn’t being cleared, one Prenton resident said that his regular collection that was due today has been missed, showing that Biffa management’s woes are far from over – and more importantly, neither is the frustration of Wirral residents. A Rock Ferry resident, Mike Kinealy, also had problems with his regular collection, “same here in Rock Ferry (Green) and my mums in Woodchurch (Grey)”, he said.
Following the publication of this article, Wirral Council posted this statement on their Facebook page: “The ongoing dispute between Biffa and their crews is still affecting bin collections. We apologise that you are not receiving the level of service you expect, and we thank you for your continued patience. We’re also aware some collections from last Thursday and Friday have not been completed as we stated yesterday. We are determined to get your collections back on track as soon as possible, but we expect there to be delayed collections until at least the weekend.”
birkenhead.news asked Biffa for comment on the situation, but at the time of publication, they had not responded. These were the two questions birkenhead.news asked:
- Why did Biffa say the backlog of non-collected bins had been cleared when it hadn’t?
- When will Biffa be likely to clear the backlog?
birkenhead.news also asked Conservative Councillor for the Moreton West and Saughall Massie Ward, Bruce Berry, for comment, but again no response was forthcoming at the time of publication. These were the two questions birkenhead.news asked:
- What is your perspective on Biffa stating that the backlog of missed collections has been cleared, when it is clear that this is not the case?
- What is the council doing to ensure that the backlog is actually cleared?
Should answers be forthcoming whilst still relevant, they will be published here.