“Nothing new” isn’t good enough for residents

North East Lincolnshire Liberal Democrats have challenged the Reform administration over recent disruption to recycling collections across the borough.

Residents have faced delays to grey recycling bin collections following separate problems involving a refuse vehicle recall and significant staff sickness.

Our refuse crews have been working hard in difficult circumstances, including extended hours to tackle the backlog. This is not a criticism of frontline staff.

The question Liberal Democrat Group Leader Cllr Nicola Aisthorpe raised is whether the service has enough resilience, investment and contingency in place to cope when problems inevitably arise.

There have also been problems with communication. In parts of East Marsh, residents have previously been advised by council services and police not to leave bins out unnecessarily because of anti-social behaviour and arson concerns.

When collections were missed, some residents followed that advice and brought their bins back in, only to risk missing catch-up collections because they had not been told when crews would return. Ward councillors were not informed of revised arrangements either, making it harder to provide residents with accurate information.

When challenged over the disruption, the Reform administration's response was that problems with frontline services happen every year and that the bin collection issue was “nothing new.”

For Liberal Democrats, that misses the point. Reform stood for election promising change. Residents should therefore expect the new administration to improve the resilience and reliability of council services, rather than simply point out that disruption happened under previous administrations too.