Now who’s talking (garden) rubbish?
Remember this little chap? He’s encouraging us to recycle – something we’re all keen to do.
A resident in Douglas Road has emailed us about his experience as he has tried to take part in the Council’s scheme for recycling garden waste, for which he has paid extra – as all participants do.
Week after week he had an experience I share – his bin wasn’t emptied and he had to phone the Contact Centre to complain. He also complained to Janet and me and we took the matter up with the Service Director, who was very concerned and very helpful.
It looked as though the matter was now resolving itself until the gentleman, having put his bin out on the due day this week and gone out returned home to find that, yet again, his bin was still as full as he had left it.
He phoned the contact centre again. This time a ‘supervisor’ rang him back and told him that, despite the Council’s best efforts, they couldn’t provide him with the service he had paid for and would refund his money.
This gentleman doesn’t live somewhere hard to reach or at a remote and obscure address. No complex navigation requiring the use of Satnavs is needed to find it. It’s one of the longest roads in the ward, pretty straight and with lots of houses down both sides, off Ewell Road – can’t miss it!!
It also has lots of other roads running off it – so have any other residents of Douglas Road or any of the numerous roads off it had a similar experience to this gentleman?
We ask because we really would like to know, so please tell us of your experiences with this service. Meanwhile this gentleman, courteous at all times, is hopping mad about it – and so are his Councillors.
Surbiton Forum 
Hi
I have paid £65 for a fortnightly garden collection which means I put out the following every recycling day – one large landfill bin, one large garden bin, one brown food bin, one white cardboard bag, one green box with papers and one green box with bottles etc so 6 containers to be collected by 4-5 vans. I have enough room to leave these on my front garden. However on any days when I am not going to be there overnight I cannot afford to leave them because the dustbin men sometimes leave them on the pavement and there would be nobody to collect them in (except a kind neighbour if I make arrangements) which would alert burglars to the fact that I am away. So what do i do, I don’t leave out my garden waste bin if I’m not there, meaning I have paid for a fortnightly collection which I can’t always use.
This is a knotty problem and no easy answer springs to mind though the ‘friendly neighbour’ idea looks like the likeliest to succeed. I don’t know where you live, but quite a few areas of the Ward have Residents’ Associations who might be interested in setting up a co-operative venture to see that bins belonging to residents who are away are not left out as an advertisement to burglars. If you write to me privately (see contact details on page ‘About us’) I can let you know.
The green bin shouldn’t be put out weekly if you have a fortnightly service. You should be able to find out from 8547 5560 which is the next ‘green bin’ day for your service. The gentleman in Douglas Road, it appears, had been given the wrong info as to his collection day and, with the help of the Service Director, Mr. Dickson, we hope we have managed to sort his problem out. Fingers crossed!