Review of Collections from Unadopted Highways with Access Problems

The Council’s Waste Management Unit and its waste contractor Veolia Environmental Services (VES) have started reviewing the collection points for bins, boxes and bags from households in relatively inaccessible parts of the County. 

The process began in mid November 2009 in the old Oswestry Borough Council area, and will continue on an area by area basis in order to resolve any issues prior to the rollout of the kerbside plastic bottle collections in 2010/2011.

In certain cases the recommendations arising out of this exercise may result in a change to the containers that are used and the collection point for residents, and the consequences of this may include residents having to present their waste or recycling away from their property, where previously a collection is provided from the edge of their property.  The reasons for this approach are outlined below.

If you have any comments contact your Unitary Councillor or Mr Paul Beard, Waste Management Contracts Manager on 01743 255996.

Contractual Position

During negotiations with VES on the waste PFI contract the collection element of the contract was let on the basis that the contractor would collect containers (sacks, bins and boxes) from the nearest adopted highway to any property.

There were two broad reasons for this, firstly the need to introduce greater efficiencies in collection overall, which made the contract more affordable for the tax payers of Shropshire and helps to fund new services such as the kerbside collection of plastic bottles. Not having to go down long side roads and tracks at slow speeds plays an important part in developing those efficiencies.

The second reason is based on practicality, partly due to potential safety implications for the contractor’s staff and damage to their vehicles, and partly due to fears over damage to private property and indeed the unadopted road or track itself. There are many unadopted roads that have been determined as unsuitable for these vehicles, there are also a number of roads that appear to be suitable but are in fact not – for example where the road or a bridge is not strong enough to take the repeated passage of these heavy vehicles.  There may also be a seasonal element to certain cases, where roads may be usable for most of the year, but not during the winter months.

Current Approach

As a general principle, therefore, we do not expect our contractor’s waste collection vehicles or collection crews to go down unadopted roads and tracks to collect waste from households.  However, this is not a hard and fast rule and many collections will continue from unadopted highways that are sufficiently well constructed and maintained.  These roads will be reviewed periodically as they may deteriorate and become unusable.

Each case will be examined on an individual basis with the aim of identifying a safe and practical collection point for residents to place their waste. In cases where more than one property is involved the process will begin with an inspection of the site by Veolia and a representative of the Council’s Waste Management Unit.  They will determine whether or not the collection point will need to change and if so, identify the nearest practical and safe site where the receptacles can be placed.  A record will be kept of the criteria and reasoning which resulted in the proposed solution.

If only one property is concerned it will be easier to identify the new collection point and therefore these issues will be dealt with by VES in the first instance.

In all cases the next stage will involve a letter being sent to the resident, explaining the reasons for the change and also containing a plan showing the new collection point. If the resident is unhappy with the decision they can be referred to the Council’s Waste Management Unit who will conduct a joint site visit with a VES representative to meet and seek to resolve the issue with the resident.  This approach will attempt to reach an amicable agreement between the residents, VES and the Council.  

Assisted Collections

The only exception to the above process will be where, for reasons of illness or disability, there are no adults (of 18 years of age or over) in a household who are physically able to move the waste to the designated collection point.  In such cases the Council and Veolia will identify a means of collecting the waste from within the property boundary.  However, it is important to note that as requirements for assisted collections will change over time, the collection arrangements for neighbouring properties would not be affected, and they would still need to present waste or recycling at the instructed collection point.

Number of Properties Where a Review Will Be Undertaken

Veolia have conducted a survey of such properties and estimate that there are around 1300 in the Shropshire Council area where the collection point will be reviewed, broken down as follows:

Old Borough/District Area	Number of properties to review
Oswestry Borough	200
North Shropshire	300
Shrewsbury & Atcham	330
South Shropshire	150
Bridgnorth	320

 
The review will take place by district in the order shown above.  As stated above, each case will be unique and therefore we cannot put a definitive start and finish date to each phase of the process.

As each case will be unique we cannot state at this stage how many properties will actually have to change their collection point.