Road is ‘too small’ to collect recycling bins

8:22am Thursday 24th July 2008

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An environment-friendly family has had its recycling bins taken away becuase the collection waggon kept getting stuck.

But Bradford Council is still sending vehicles up the country lane to collect their wheelie bin filled with domestic waste.

Judith Sharp from Whitley Head, in Steeton, was baffled by the replacement of her paper and glass recycling bins with small plastic boxes with a "glorified shower cap" as a lid.

To make matters worse, when she tried to contact the new recycling contractor she found the telephone number on a letter from Bradford Council was for a private address.

She was visited last week by an official from Bradford Council, who told her the switch was due to "health and safety implications".

Minutes later her wheelie bins were removed and Mrs Sharp was angry to see them replaced with the much smaller boxes.

She said: "When I saw the size of the boxes, I said I'd need at least two, and I was told that I could pile things around the boxes if it didn't all fit in.

"I don't want to have to go outside armed with plastic bags of recycling material and struggle to get the lid on. It just looks totally Mickey Mouse."

Despite being told the boxes would be delivered to her by Aire Valley Recycling, Mrs Sharp had to phone up one, only to find the telephone number error.

Mrs Sharp says that when she investigated the reason behind the wheelie bin removal, she was given conflicting explanations by council officials.

She said: "First we were told health and safety reasons, then we were told it was because people were putting the wrong materials into the wheelie bins.

"Then we were told that the wagon coming to pick up the recycling was causing traffic hold-ups but it is the same wagon that comes to pick up the ordinary refuse so I don't understand."

The new recycling units can take paper, glass, food, cans, cartons and clothes in the same box and will be collected every two weeks.

But Mrs Sharp and her husband Andrew refuse to use them.

She said: "I do not want anything to do with this box, I have asked for them to be taken back.

"We have always recycled everything so I am going to have to make my own pile of recycling and take it to the tip ourselves, but what do we pay our rates for when all is said and done?"

Aire Valley Recycling General Manager Richard Topham said:"With the boxes you can recycle a lot more materials then just paper, glass and tins.

"I have had one phone call from someone on Whitley Head who is delighted with the scheme, and at the end of the day our collection transit vehicle does not block the road."

Bradford Council's recycling officer Edith Grooby said: "We have been experiencing access issues with this particular property as it is up a country lane which is not suitable for our 26-tonne vehicle.

"Recently the vehicle was stuck for an hour-and-a-half when it was blocked in by a tractor.

"We have therefore commissioned Aire Valley Recycling, which provides a recycling collection service using a box rather than bins, to take over this round."