Derby brown bins warning as food waste problems outlined

Brown bin collections in Derby may be temporarily paused, Derby City Council has said. Image by LDRS.

Derby City Council has warned there may be “temporary pauses” to brown bin collections in some areas because of problems with its new £2 million food waste scheme.

The Labour-led authority confirmed in a public statement that it is dealing with several “challenges” following the launch of new weekly food scraps collections.

Thousands of households across Derby have been provided with new food waste bins as part of the scheme, which is part of a UK-wide initiative.

But since the launch of the service on March 31 it has been branded a “shambles” by an angry resident who had his first collection missed, while opposition councillors declared the mess “totally unacceptable”.

There have also been concerns about the smell of new bins attracting wildlife on the streets after a badger was spotted next to one in Oakwood.

However, the council said at the time the scheme “started successfully”. 

The authority states “more than 90 per cent of households have received a food waste collection”, with 195.7 tonnes collected so far, “demonstrating strong resident participation and good progress”.

But Ndukwe Onuoha, cabinet member for Streetpride, now says the council recognises “the frustration” some residents have experienced with missed collections and added it is taking the problems seriously.

The statement explained that the city council has had issues in getting its full fleet of vehicles from the manufacturer. This is a national issue, according to Cllr Onuoha.

However, Cllr Onuoha also pointed to staffing problems. He said: “In addition, we have not had as many full crews available as we would have preferred due to recent staff turnover.”

He says the vehicle situation is out of the council’s control but warned brown bin collections in some areas may have “temporary pauses” so issues can be addressed.

This comes at a time when households are likely to use the brown bins more regularly to dispose of garden waste.

But when pressed, the council said there was no “planned” pause and any decision to pause brown bin collections in certain areas “will be decided on a day-to-day basis”.

Cllr Onuoha’s statement added: “We’ve trained additional staff and have two additional council vehicles joining the food waste service from tomorrow (Tuesday). However, we are still operating with ten hired vehicles, while supply chain issues continue.

“This is unfortunately out of our control, but be assured that we are doing everything we can to mitigate this.

“Where needed, priority will be given to food waste and black bins. This may mean temporary pauses to brown bin collections and residents may also see larger refuse collection vehicles (RCVs) being used for food waste collections – these still dispose of waste correctly and help maintain service continuity.”

Councillor Steve Hassall, Conservative group leader for Derby, in response to the statement, called the roll-out of food weekly collection in the city “shambolic”.

He said: “I have no doubt that residents want to do the right thing and engage positively with food waste recycling. The problem is that the service itself is currently falling well short of expectations, and people are understandably frustrated.

“You cannot call it a success when significant numbers of residents have been left wondering whether bins will be collected at all, and when the council is already having to reshuffle priorities and pause other services to try and cope.

“Residents pay for services and they are entitled to expect them to run properly.”

Derby Liberal Democrats leader Lucy Care said the council’s statement was helpful but felt delivery of the service mattered more to residents.

The Littleover councillor said: “I think that people had expected that the council’s own preparation would have been as thorough, and while they had tried, not everything went to plan.

“I think that this has made people more disappointed when things weren’t perfect for not just one week, but at least two.

“A statement is helpful and some of the facts presented reassuring but it is delivery of the service that matters. The brown bins are non-statutory so always the lowest priority, so letting people know the reason for a non-collection is helpful.”