Queues as rubbish tip cuts hours
Monday 26th April 2010, 6:00PM BST.
Motorists dumping rubbish at a Wolverhampton tip were stuck in long queues to drop off their waste — after opening hours were cut to save cash.
Tips at Shaw Road, in Bushbury, and Anchor Lane, in Coseley, now open two hours later than before.
They also close for two days a week as part of cost-cutting measures.
And as the Bushbury site opened its doors at 10am on Saturday, a queue of around 20 cars snaked from the site waiting to get in. Among those queuing to get in was Lee Harris, who wanted to drop off a hi-fi and some old toys.
He said: “It is ridiculous, it is almost summer and it should be opening early, people have got shopping and other things to do.”
Earlier this month a carpet, paint trays, fencing and other waste was found close to the entrance of the Coseley site which had to be cleaned up by the council.
The move to shut both sites for two days along with the reduction in opening hours was made in a bid to save £100,000 over two years as part of £27m of savings at Wolverhampton City Council.
The matter is now part of a political row between Labour and the ruling Tories and Lib Dems.
Wolverhampton City Council spokesman Gurdip Thandi said: “To date we have not received any complaints from residents about any problems at the household waste recycling centre in Shaw Road on Saturday.
“With the recent good weather it is possible that people would have been working in their gardens resulting in more people wishing to use the centre over the weekend.
“But the opening times of the centres was reduced because of the increasing success our kerbside recycling scheme.
“Residents now have more waste for recycling from homes than ever before,” he added.
“Before the new opening times were introduced more than three weeks ago we carried out surveys of both the sites and found there was very little use before 10am.
“Since the new opening hours were implemented we have received five complaints.”
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When will you people start complaining?
PHONE or WRITE to Gurdip Thandi and remind him and the COUNCIL that they work for you, not the other way round.
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As with most publc services, they need to fit around people’s lives. In this case, surely lopping an hour off 2 of the other mid-week days and adding them onto the beginning of the Saturday opening would make sense?
As a typical Mon-Fri 9-5′er, additional hours on a Saturday would be perfect for me.
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its simple they want to save money just sack a councilor they’ll save £50.000 a year
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I think you’re getting confused with someone on a high wage. Councillors don’t get paid very much, that’s why they still have their main job too.
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Saturday must surely be the busiest day of the week, so why penalise people in this way? LIke David rightly says, working people have to schedule a thousand things into their weekend, going to the tip being one of them.It seems to me like the wants of the few outdo the needs of the many…yet again.
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Exactly WHO dreamt-up this cazy idea?
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You could always pay and get someone to collect your excess rubbish. However no doubt fly tipping will re-comence and will probably cost the council more to clear up than opening the facilities for longer hours. However different internal budgets will hide this fact. Just look at the NHS and our Schools, cant pay for extra staff, overtime or new staff but can pay agency staff double what it would have cost them.
RANT OVER.
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Another complete farce in a long long line of small minded Wolverhampton council farces. Inconvienience and punish the coucil tax payers of Wolverhampton to save money because years of mismanagment that has wasted millions.
Supposed to be a City….pah! And don’t get me started on the paltry £5k St.Georges’ Day budget !!
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As usual on this site whatever the Council does is criticised.
The Council don’t save money – criticism
The Council save money – criticism
I know the Shaw Road site and there’s no way that twenty cars are queueing in that picture. Also, twenty cars would be cleared quite quickly if there was a queue. Its only people dropping off rubbish after all.
Whatever the Council do the people on here will stick the boot in.
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Also Charlie F, if more than 5k was allocated to the St George’s budget (i’ll take your word on the figures as I don’t know) then you’d be on here moaning that the Council were throwing money at pointless parades while front line services go under-funded.
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Sorry, but I certainly wouldn’t moan. I consider money spent on such community events firstly as giving a little back and secondly bringing people together creating a feel good factor for the City. It’s all take take take, and it’s WE who suffer (as now with the tips), not the people who throw our money down the drain via red routes, misplaced bus lanes that have to be dug up after 6 months, computer systems that never materialise etc. etc. etc.
Brewery and a sober gathering come to mind !
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If the Labour council, that was voted in by all the people on benefits, hadn’t left the new Lib Dem/Tory Council with such a black hole then there wouldn’t have to be such cuts.
You only have yourselves to blame for voting for party which likes to think it’s for the working class, but makes everyone pay for it’s mistakes.
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I went to dump some rubbish at the Anchor road site on Saturday morning and there was a line of cars waiting. I didn’t know they had changed the hours.
Surely Saturday is going to be the busiest day,so why not shorten week hours but keep Saturdays the same? This is wha you get with Labour, they almost bankrupt the country in the 70′s and they’ve done it again. At least the Tories are trying to deal with the mess left by the Labour council, it needs to be done on a national level.
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wont this encourage fly tipping i live in a semi rural place and the amount of rubish that is dumped by builders etc, may be there they will have pay coucil workers overtime to come and clear this mess
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Commercial waste from builders isn’t allowed into the site anyway, unless they have a pass which they have to apply for. So no, no more flytipping than normal.
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I wasn’t in the queue that is mentioned here, but I was stuck in another queue at 11.30 am on Thursday 22nd April and that was around 20 cars as the queue was inside also.
BUT – I do have to say that what didn’t help was people waiting to park next to the bay they wanted rather than park anywhere and carry it – especially when it was just – in most cases, plastic bottles and cardboard.
Yes, the reduction in hours is a pain, but people using the site need to use their common sense at times.
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Surely there are more practical ways of saving such a small sum of money in the context of £27m……
Usually, the tip is a single journey (in my experience) and one that, even if you have to queue, does not take that long – you will wait a lot longer in a queue in Sainsbury’s on a Saturday ! But, in usual British “I got here first” style, I can see people –
1. Not bothering to use the tip if queues are likely, possibly more fly-tipping leading to increased costs of clean-up.
2. Some people will burn rubbish themselves and add toxic smoke to an already polluted City.
Maybe, if the scumbags who make up a large percentage of this City……: -
a. …made proper use of the street bins, the council could save money on cleaning up after morons (have you seen the City on a Sunday morning?)
b. …didn’t use the streets as a means to dispose of vomit, chewing gum, cigarettes and dog mess – same outcome as point a.
c. …didn’t act with such anti-social behaviour, resources could be saved on not having to deal with it.
d. …I know as a resident of this place that this will never happen.
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I have to also agree that the times of change for weekend opening hours is a bad move. I work 8-5 mon-fri and before the changes I would rush down before close in the week (8pm) or on a saturday.
Went there the other week and was stuck in long que to get in.
As a resident I am unhappy.
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People should be glad that the dirty people of Wolverhampton use the tip, imaging the mess if they were left to their own imagination.
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I phone wolverhampton city council about having rubiish removed as I have no car (I use the Bus!). They now only take certain items and advised that items they would not take I should burn in the garden! Really eco friendly!
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I know people who work on this side of the council which is outsourced to an independent company. The council made this decision with no real consultation with the company. The changes were advertised in the Express and Star and the first week it happened they put someone on the gates of the tips to tell people that it was closed.
In a couple of cases the staff have been faced with threatening behaviour from people who want to get on the site. I understand that in the present climate it is appropriate to save money, but not when the good weather starts. Save money in the winter when people dont need to go to the tip that often may be cut the opening times down and shut it during the week.
In the summer people have the opportunity to do the jobs they havent done in the winter due to weather conditions, I had two cars full of rubbish the other week and also got stuck in the queues. This will have in impact on the amount of fly tipping mark my words
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Most of use will sit there patiently waiting to get into the tip.
the problem as one commenter put it is the selfish individuals blocking the way, waiting for parking bays….there are loads the far end by the exit that are free……
So stop whinging and park up. Or as I do stop nr the bay to the side and run out and chuck the stuff.
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Well said Rob – it’s about time these people were put in their place
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