It's bin a long time...

Many town centre streets are a mess

Plaid Cymru councillors on Wrexham Council are calling for fairer refuse collection schedules now the strike has ended. 

It's in response to the unequal way communities have been affected by the action and its aftermath.

Cllr Becca Martin, who represents Acton and Maesydre ward, said: "Strike action by Unite members affected many departments of the council, but was most noticeable with refuse collections and rubbish collecting in the streets. Many areas of Wrexham struggling through reduced collections. However, it seems some areas have been hit harder than others, with those who usually have Friday collections being most affected. These tended to be ones in Wrexham town itself and we've seen the results - piles of rubbish accumulating in the street even now - more than a week since the strike ended.

"Throughout the strike action we saw bin collections being pushed back by a day or two through the week. This is completely understandable and acceptable given the circumstances; what isn’t acceptable is that although collections Monday through to Thursday were all continued and completed through the week, on Monday’s the cycle started again meaning Friday collections were missed repeatedly and consistently throughout the strike. To make matters worse it is continuing now workers are back on the job and dealing with the matter." 

Cllr Marc Jones, where some streets didn't get a collection in seven weeks and still haven't had the promised recycling collection last Friday, said:  “This level of disparity is completely unfair on our residents who have Friday collections, many of whom have barely had a single collection since August. We’ve all struggled with the effects of the strikes but to completely miss out the same rounds week in, week out is just unacceptable. Particularly when we are hearing that other areas have been prioritised.

"Although most of our group's councillors represent town wards, the ones that represent village wards have seen a far more reliable collection over the strike period and since then. Why is that?”  

The group are also questioning the level of communication during the strikes, leaving residents with little to no information meaning many also missed collections, and also since the strike ended.  

Cllr Martin added: “Some of our residents received emails telling them to bring their bins in if they weren’t collected. The bin lorries then turned up on a Sunday with no warning meaning many people had taken their bins in as requested to via email. It's difficult to advise residents when the information is incorrect. We've approached the Environment Department both as individual councillors and collectively to try to improve communication but we're still in the dark about collections."