Three Towns Forum
Members' Lounge => Politics & Current Affairs => Topic started by: Yorkie on May 04, 2011, 01:46:44 pm
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I recently wrote to the CCBC regarding their new re-cycling program commencing in June. Eventually I received the following reply which makes it apparent that we will all be trapsing along to the Public Amenity site with much of our disposable waste. Their letter received by email today, note date of mine! ££$
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Refuse and Recycling
Thank you for your letter dated 11th April 2011 regarding our new weekly recycling collections. As you described in your letter, from June we will collect virtually all your recyclable household waste, every week, including food waste, plastic, cans, drink cartons, cardboard, paper, glass and batteries. There will be no change to your garden waste collection service or your wheeled refuse bin collection, both of which will continue fortnightly.
Most non-recyclable items can be placed in your wheeled bin for disposal to landfill, with the exception of rubble, soil, plasterboard, any liquids or any hazardous materials such as paint, chemicals, clinical waste etc. While electrical items are not specifically prohibited from landfill, we strongly advise that they not be placed in your wheeled bin. Electrical items are one of the types of waste we are working to find more recycling options for, as described in the responses below to your questions regarding disposal of specific materials.
1. “DIY leftovers such as plaster, cement, bricks and other similar rubbish.” The Council does not offer a collection service for DIY waste. Residents able to carry out DIY work are expected to make their own arrangements to dispose of their construction waste. Household DIY waste is accepted at the Mochdre Recycling Centre. If a contractor carries out the work, they must dispose of the waste through a commercial recycling or waste disposal outlet.
2. “Old fat and cooking oils and car lubricants.” These items are accepted at Mochdre Recycling Centre. Solid (but not liquid) waste fat can be placed in your wheeled bin. Car lubricants are hazardous and any resident choosing to change their own car oil at home is responsible for its safe disposal.
3. “Carpet, clothing and other materials.” We are currently in a tender process to find a charity or company to carry out textile collections on behalf of the Council. Details of this service will be provided along with your new recycling calendar, which will be delivered in early June.
4. “Metals such as old domestic utensils, toasters etc.” We will be encouraging the successful company or charity carrying out textile collections to also accept small electrical items (broken or working), for which they can receive payment from an appropriate Producer Compliance Scheme. Proposals to collect general household bric-a-brac of the type that might be taken to a charity shop – books, CD’s, kitchen utensils etc – will also be considered.
5. “Wooden items and broken furniture.” The Council offers a bulky household waste collection service, for which there is a charge of £20 for up to four items. Please call our Environment Advice Team on 01492 575337 to book a collection.
6. “Items of mixed composition such as old televisions, computers etc.” Most electrical retailers now offer collection and recycling of your old equipment when purchasing a new item. Large electrical items can also be included in a bulky household waste collection, as described above. Many charities or local community organisations also welcome donations of working television and computer equipment and may collect it.
7. “Electrical items including cables and ceramics.” As already outlined, we hope to be able offer kerbside collection of small electrical items in the near future. We are also trialling electrical recycling banks at five locations in the County, but not unfortunately in your area as yet.
8. “Hazardous items such as car batteries etc.” The Council does not offer a hazardous waste collection service and hazardous waste is not permitted in your wheeled bin. Most types of hazardous household waste are accepted at Mochdre Recycling Centre. Most car battery retailers will recycle your old battery on purchase of a new one.
9. “Any other unspecified waste.” All the above waste types and many others not specified are accepted at Mochdre Recycling Centre, where over 80% of waste is recycled. While we appreciate that not everyone owns a car to be able to access the Recycling Centre, a friend, neighbour or relative may be able to help.
As can be seen from our responses above, we do not have an answer for everything. It would not be practical or economic for the Council to collect every type of waste, on demand, from every household. What we will do is keep working to provide the most efficient and cost-effective collection service possible, with the maximum environmental benefit.
Yours sincerely
pp. G.B. Edwards
Head of Environment & Technical Services
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Am I missing something Yorkie. I was under the impression that rubble, kitchen work tops, fridges and the like were not to be put in wheely bins anyway? It's the food waste that bothers me, it's going to stink and attract vermin. The solution I suppose would be to buy a compost bin however I have no garden, only a small decking area.
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It's the food waste that bothers me, it's going to stink and attract vermin.
Probably sounds a bit odd but I keep mine in the freezer and put it in the bin the night before the collection!
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Yep your right Paddy......that is a bit odd :o ........ _))* ...... WWW
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Yep your right Paddy......that is a bit odd :o ........ _))* ...... WWW
The vermin go crazy trying to get into Paddy's fridge. :laugh:
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Am I missing something Yorkie. I was under the impression that rubble, kitchen work tops, fridges and the like were not to be put in wheely bins anyway? It's the food waste that bothers me, it's going to stink and attract vermin. The solution I suppose would be to buy a compost bin however I have no garden, only a small decking area.
I never asked about kitchen work tops, fridges etc. but I did list a load of stuff hat one used to have collected even before wheelie bins. ZXZ
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Llandudno Town Council web site. This still has a few errors that are inexcusable.
Such as Finance Committee, Sepember 2011 meeting is on the 176h.
Using their powers they have increased Sepember's lot by 146 days! L0L
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Something NEW from Llandudno Town Council - a set of rules covering what they will do with anyone who continues to ask questions whether or not they use the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or not! It seems that you can become a persistant pain in the A*** purely by exercising your Statutory rights or asking difficult questions. WWW WWW
A copy of the Document is available from Tessa Wildermoth the Town Clerk, at The Town Hall, LL30 2UP. If you can't get your own copy I can post it to the Forum or email you a copy. It is a few pages long so needs careful reading! ;D
You better watch out Wrex or you will incur their wrath with all your postings and could finish up being banned from contacting them direct! ZXZ
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More from the Llandudno Town Council web site. Thought this chap had been replaced!
From Council web site
Pictured below is the current Mayor of Llandudno for 2011-12 is Cllr Greg J T Robbins who was elected by his fellow Councillors at the Annual General Meeting of Llandudno Town Council held on Friday 20th May 2011
Picture has copyright, but you know what he looks like!
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I have it on good authority that Paul Evans of the Highways Department has retired from Conwy County Borough Council. I believe his work is being taken over by Chris Pastori. I wish the new man well and hope that he will endeavour to improve the Service Delivery to the people of Conwy County.
££$
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Sent an email to CCBC CEO, Iwan Davies. Got a reply back within a few minutes dated 15/8/2014 saying he was on holiday until 11th August. Must be going back to the future, and once again demonstrating the mass intelligence of this person who governs the County Services.
_))*
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Perhaps he means August the 11th next year? He might have arranged for an annual year off! :laugh:
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This is a lengthy post, probably boring to the majority of forum members, but has a potential disaster to Conwy council finances or maybe, well hell of a big saving.
A small bit of news in one of the local papers a few days. Just to fill you in, for very, very many years home to school transport is provided in this area by the borough councils and paid for by you, the ratepayer. Every so often, usually every 3 or 5 years, they put the various routes out to tender to the local bus operators, and usually, the lowest price firm gets the job or jobs.
So far, so good. Conwy area tenders are now about to be renewed. Bear in mind that there is only two weeks to go before around about 54 buses have to trundle out to pick up the little darlings!!
And now --- to the absolute bombshell. An unnamed firm, unnamed for very obvious reasons has gone tp the Council and said, in effect "How about scrapping this individual tendering process and let us do THE WHOLE LOT over all the County. Thats right, All 54 of them. And we will do it for, and here I have no idea of the figures. They were printed but I was so gobsmacked reading this that I didn't really notice the figures. But say 678937 pounds 78 pence. Either monthly or annually, I'm not sure. Jolly good accountants. They worked it out to the 78 pence worth, I noticed that
Now I've was in this business for over 30 years. I know, and every one else in the business knows, there are only a maximum of three firms that could even think about a job of this magnitude . One local, one a national group never in the past showing much interest in school work, and one based outside Conwy, but maybe with a small outstation or two.
If the Council take up this offer, they save themselves (and us) a very large chunk of cash. In certainly in the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. The figures were quoted in the newspaper report, but again I didn't take them in.
But there are sizeable downsides. At the moment there are a good few coach operators doing this work. And have done it for 40, maybe 50 years. And it is bread and butter work. It provides a steady income and enables many to run the exotic coaches to exotic parts of the world. A saying in the industry. The good old ins (coaches) pay for the flashy new uns.
So this must be the ultimate eggs in one basket situation. First, immediate job losses where coach firms stop needing drivers. Probably not that much. After all every bus needs a driver, and no doubt some will find their way to the big firm.
But will the smaller firms even TRY to carry on. Maybe not. Without this bread and butter. They might just decide to pack the whole thing up. Now, you are talking about job losses. And property rents. And tax and rates. And etc etc.
As far as I am aware this is an absolutely unprecedented situation. I have never heard of this being done anywhere in the whole of the U.K.
And its being considered by small group on the Council with around a week or so to decide and another week to put it into operation.
If you happen to see a few thousand schoolchildren milling around bus stops around 9.30 a.m. in a couple of weeks time, you will know that something has gone seriously wrong.
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And, another thought.
What happens if this mega firm hits trouble. Any sort of big trouble.
No turning the clock back. The smaller firms are long gone.
Oh dear, now what do we do?
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Gosh Yorkie you mix in elevated circles. I have to pluck up courage to send a letter to the housing warden where I live.
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Or, when all the smaller firms have gone to the wall, up goes the price!
Remember you're dealing here with CCBC, same people who spend millions on a building that they have no idea what to do with....
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Or, when all the smaller firms have gone to the wall, up goes the price!
Remember you're dealing here with CCBC, same people who spend millions on a building that they have no idea what to do with....
I know of a few occasions where contracts have been thrown back to CCBC who have then had to pay an inflated subsidy to get the company to carry on operating the service as there is no other option. School contract services are usually operated with the oldest vehicles in the fleet which have already seen many years of stage carriage work, so can be costly to maintain. You only need to have a couple of blown engines and with a low tender the profit margin can look a bit grim. If one company has the monopoly and the smaller firms have gone there would be nothing to stop them going back to CCBC and basically naming their price to keep the services running. Suddenly the original offer wasn't so good after all. CCBC should tread carefully before making their decision if this story is true.
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When some of us were kids we had to use Shank's Pony to get to school, often a few miles. For the younger ones that meant walk! :D
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there would be nothing to stop them going back to CCBC and basically naming their price to keep the services running.
I saw this, and thought 'but the lawyers would draft the contract so it couldn't be changed' then remembered who we're dealing with...
:Sisyphus:
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But isn't the CEO of CCBC legally qualified? He would get it right, surely? ZXZ
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Of course he would, how can you doubt him/them, you just have to look at their past record....ah..ok..
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Yes, Yorkie, you are correct about walking to school in the old days. However things have changed. Every village had at least a primary school. But over the years it was decided they were uneconomical and had to close. When there was uproar the relevant Council immediately said "hold on, we will provide a free bus service to the brand new large school sometimes miles away."
So the Councils are now stuck with it. Yorkie is right that walking doesn't seem to be an option now, but buses were used by schoolchildren even if they had to pay when I was a child---and thats a long time ago.
Believe it or not around about 1945 a small bus, presumably Crosville, used to come around midday right up to Colwyn Bay Grammar School, now Eirias, and start off with pupils, me included, and take them close to their homes, I lived in Rhos, for their midday meal. And then you caught the service bus back.
That was if you absolutely hated the school dinner.
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Its official now. As everyone in the business suspected, its Alpine that has got the lot.
The council claim it will save #260,000, presumably per annum. Contracts covered number 36. Thats a lot less than previously mentioned, I think the original was 54. So whether it covers the whole of Conwy Council territory I don't know. But that is what was originally stated.
There will be a lot of disgruntled sore heads at Abacab, Llew Jones, Arriva, Voel to mention just a few.
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Yorkie is right that walking doesn't seem to be an option now
Not sure I entirely agree. The decline in community-based Primary schools is a problem, granted, but most of the bus/taxi services are used to ferry children the distances - as you note, Mike - from the remoter communities and farms to the scattered secondary schools, yet there's been no change in their location for many, many years. Years ago kids simply walked the footpaths. It involved very long walks, of course, and in very changeable weather, but today parents have become neurotic about their children, and either drive them everywhere or expect the council to do it.
We're always being told that one of the biggest threats to the future of our children is the rapidly growing obesity issue, which in itself is inextricably linked to a lack of exercise, as well as parents giving their children what they like, instead of what they need. The footpaths still exist from the farms to the schools, so perhaps it might do the children no harm to use them from time to time.
Of course, none of this addresses the situation about Alpine, and its now almost total monopoly of the school run service. It'll be very interesting to see how this pans out.
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Did anyone expect anyone but Alpine to get the contract? ZXZ
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Its official now. As everyone in the business suspected, its Alpine that has got the lot.
The council claim it will save #260,000, presumably per annum. Contracts covered number 36. Thats a lot less than previously mentioned, I think the original was 54. So whether it covers the whole of Conwy Council territory I don't know. But that is what was originally stated.
There will be a lot of disgruntled sore heads at Abacab, Llew Jones, Arriva, Voel to mention just a few.
CONWY BUDGET: Conwy's Cabinet meets this afternoon to discuss the authority's budget.
Members will be told that the budget for 2014/2015 included a business case for Home to School Transport in the sum of £150k for provision of seat belts.
The contract has now been let for a lower than estimated sum and as a result there is a £50k saving on the available budget for the scheme.
My understanding of the above, is that CBCC is paying to fit seat belts, in a private companies busses. ?
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Any why would this come as any surprise?
Happy enough to fit out a 'Bistro' in the skip at no cost to tenant......
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This is what happens (eventually) in Surrey, if you defy the council's planning dept.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-35928269 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-35928269)