Stoke-on-Trent city council has defended its decision to move its refuse collection workers to a continental shift pattern stating that other UK local authorities already operate on the system, which has proved successful in Europe.
The comments came following the release of the councils budget proposal 2012/13 to 2013/14 which outlined plans to move to later collections times, including evenings and Saturdays, meaning collection workers will face longer shifts.
If pushed forward the collection workers will work 12-hour shifts on three consecutive days, from 8am to 8pm, and then have four days off.
The plans came under criticism from the Daily Mail earlier this month (Dec 1) with the newspaper claiming that the cash-strapped council has hit upon the controversial idea to save money evening rubbish collections.
However councillor Janine Bridges, cabinet member for city services, defended the councils plans and said that, if implemented, it could save the council up to 450,000 in fleet rationalisation.
She said: A lot of other local authorities work on this shift pattern. It is not out of the ordinary for this sector.
The councillor added that further savings would be made in terms of labour costs, as the council would no longerrequire agency staff and would encourage voluntary redundancies from staff close to retirement.
We dont envisage compulsory redundancies. We are hoping voluntary redundancies will work out any reductions needed, she said.
The council said it has received positive feedback from some residents and it is currently discussing the move with trade unions. If these talks prove successfulit said the newsystemwould be rolled out.
Kerbside
As part of the budget proposal, the council also suggested the removal of kerbside recycling collections from areas with low participation in a bid to make more efficient use of the councils resources such as its existing bring-banks and household waste recycling centres.
Councillor Bridges explained that the council did not expect this to have a bad impact on the citys recycling rate, which is currently 39%.
She said: What we are looking at is making kerbside collections less frequent. Its a more targeted response.
Service
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The service is expected to remain the same in other areas of the city, which have a high recycling rate. Residents in Stoke-on-Trent currently have an alternate weekly collection with dry recyclables collected in a blue wheeled bin, or green box, garden and food waste in a brown wheeled bin and residual waste in a grey wheeled bin, or black bag.
Most of the residual waste collected by the council goes to an energy-from-waste plant in Hanford. The dry recyclables, which are collected commingled, are currently sent to Essex for sorting, but councillor Bridges stated that a proposal has been made to the city council to have them treated closer to Stoke-on-Trent.
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