Believe me I'm shocked!
This evening I find a further two emails from Councillor Gary Parker.
In the first he says that he has "raised this matter with senior officers of the council" and in the second he says that I will hear from Neighbourhood Services soon.
Then after that I get an email from Jim Wintour himself.
This is what he had to say, as with Councillor Parker's initial email I'm publishing it in full as I think he deserves the chance to explain himself in his own words.
Thank you for your letter of 18 March. Your three ward councillors also sent me copies of your letter and asked me to reply. I apologise for the delay in replying and for any failures in the high standard of service that you expect and deserve.
I am delighted that you support the theory behind Greenwich’s new recycling scheme. You will therefore be pleased to hear that recycling and composting has risen from 24% in 2006/7 to 37% since the new scheme came into effect.
We recognise that some people are still confused about what rubbish should go in what bin, and what day they should put their black bags out. We have written to all residents in Greenwich about this three times, as well as publicising the new scheme in Greenwich Time. We are also writing special letters to people who consistently get it wrong. If you are talking to your neighbours you may wish to draw their attention to our website where you can look up what material goes in what bin, and what day your black bags are collected. The website is at:
http://www.greenwich.gov.uk/Greenwich/YourEnvironment/RubbishRecycling/
You helpfully rang our contact centre to raise a number of specific complaints. You rang us twice on 18 March to ask for sweeping of Floyd Road (reference numbers 141077 and 141080) and our records show that these requests were actioned the next day. You rang us on 6 March to report a fly tip and our records show that this was closed as complete on 10 March. You rang us on 20 March to raise a street cleaning request and our records show that this was closed as complete on 25 March.
We have also observed some contaminated green bins in Floyd Road today and these should be collected tomorrow 9 April. I will check that this has been done when I attend the Charlton match on 12 April.
In conclusion, can I thank you for the hard work that you and your colleagues do. The reports from concerned citizens like yourself are essential to delivering a cleaner and a greener Greenwich.
Best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Jim Wintour
Well we have a date for emptying of the contaminated bins along Floyd Road, tomorrow. I'll be curious to see if they're done when I get home.
He's also been the first to actually comment on what's going to be done about the residents who are persistently doing the wrong thing.
So here's the challenge:
1) Get the rubbish off the streetsand empty the unemptied bins.
2) Keep the rubbish off the streets and stop unemptied bins happening week after week.
It sounds like we'll get action on Point 1, please let us see Point 2 tackled too.
I'll hold off on a Monkey Chart update until we see what results tomorrow brings...
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3 comments:
Lets hope that they can do this across the entire borough!
Fair dos to Cllr Parker, he's made an effort.
However he rather misses the point. The Council HAS gone over to a part-fortnightly system (green & recyclable weekly, residuals fortnightly). Much of the problem with the black sacks strewing the streets is because some residents are unable or unwilling to accept this and put out their sacks in weeks when they are not collected.
This must be frustrating for the Council but it's their duty to keep the streets clean and boasting about increased levels of recycling is no substitute for this.
It's interesting how Jim Wintour says that he's received copies of your letter from all three ward councillors, when Gary Parker claims he never received it in the forst place!
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