'Appalling': Residents' anger over ongoing issues with new recycling and waste collection service in the Warwick district

Residents have expressed their anger at issues with the new recycling and waste bin collection service launched in and around Leamington and Warwick recently.

Several people have contacted The Courier and Weekly News to report missed and delayed collections and a poor customer experience for Warwick District Council’s (WDC) 1-2-3+ service, which was launched across the area on August 1.

Marion Burke, who lives in Styles Close, Leamington, is concerned that the large recycling wheelie bins for the flats in the road are overflowing and has described the new service as “appalling”.

She said: “The bins have not been emptied for a month and, as the flats are on the canal towpath, there's a real risk of more rats in the area.

"They are now not due to come out until August 23, despite the fact that they failed to make a collection earlier in the month.

"I have rung the council five times since Thursday August 5, filled in an e-form and tweeted them, but although the agents say they have passed the messages on to Biffa, nothing happens and the recycling waste keeps piling up.

"Residents are now adding their recycling to the general waste bins, which defeats the recycling ethos, and these bins fill up more quickly and need to be emptied.

"After I first complained the bin operatives did empty the general waste last Tuesday ( August 9), but no one came to remove the recycling and WDC has not contacted me about my complaint.

"I find it baffling.

"It is annoying that we are expected to pay more for a service that is so poor and fielded out to third-party services that have no accountability.

"WDC also doesn’t want to be accountable as no managers will call back to acknowledge this issue or speak to their customers directly.”

Pensioners Raymond and Doreen Markham from Cubbington said they had problems after the permit payment for their green bin did not go through.

In the end they had to go to their MP Jeremy Wright to get things sorted.After many calls to the council, their green bin has now been collected but they said the situation had been very difficult for them.

Residents in Chase Meadow, Warwick, have also been in touch saying they have had problems with collections of their recycling bins and food waste caddies.

And Sue and Pete Wilson, who have the same service provided by Stratford District Council (SDC) which is operating the collections alongside WDC, said: “There is a wall of silence from the waste team.

"Nobody seems to know which bins are being collected each week and the online app is pretty useless too.

"Our recycling bins are outside our houses and they are full.

"We’ve no intention of bringing them back in and no answers from SDC.”

Last month, WDC said that the delivery of food caddy and blue-lidded bin deliveries had been delayed .

Some residents are still waiting to receive their caddy.

Councillor Moira-Ann Grainger, WDC’s portfolio holder for neighbourhood and leisure, has said:“We appreciate our residents’ patience and understanding as we work quickly to get this new service up and running.”