Watch the Leader of Barnet Council apologise for bin collection failures

The Leader of Barnet Council, Richard Cornelius has issued an apology for the chaos following the reorganisation of the bin collections. Some residents have not had a collection for three weeks.

Given that Mr Cornelius and the Conservative party won the council election in May promising uninterrupted bin collections for Barnet Residents, we do wonder whether Mr Cornelius and his team have considered whether their position is tenable?

My fellow blogger Mr Mustard has uncovered council papers showing that the council are planning a £50 charge for collecting green bins. Yet another surprise for the voters, who thought voting Tory would guarantee a weekly bin collection (without extra charges).

Barnet have issued another press release today.

Barnet’s new recycling and waste collection days began earlier this month. Please see below for our latest service update.

We are continuing to work hard to complete all collections on their new scheduled collection days. We are now in the fourth week of the new schedules, meaning our crews are working
on their new rounds for the fourth time, and are still familiarising themselves with the roads
and routes involved.

We are aware that a number of residents have experienced issues with the new waste and recycling collections and this has meant that their bins have not been collected as expected.

The Leader of Barnet Council, Councillor Richard Cornelius, has issued the following response: “We’re working to get it right and I believe we have turned a corner - and that we
will start to start to see an improvement in the service this week.

“Council staff have been working very hard, from early until late. The council also have crews out at the weekends and have additional teams working to complete collections. I accept that it has been difficult to contact the council and speak to people in the recycling and waste department. This is simply because all the supervisors are out as part of a huge team effort to catch up with the backlog.

“We are doing our utmost to fix this. The new rounds should become business as usual
over the coming weeks, and we are working hard to getting back to having the successful waste and recycling service that we’ve had for years. I’m very sorry for the inconvenience
once again. Please do bear with us a little longer, and thank you for your patience and understanding.”

If your bin has not been emptied as scheduled, please leave it at the boundary of your property and we will collect it as soon as we can.  Residents can also report missed bin collections via the council website.

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Let's just recap. Childrens services was put into special measures following a failing rating from OFSTED, and management was taken over by Essex County Council last year. Capita have received a scathing audit report from Grant Thornton listing over 30 major deficiencies in how they conduct business for Barnet Council. The audit of the Cocuncils pension fund missed its statuatory deadline.
The bins across the Borough are not being emptied .We can only speculate what the next Council service to collapse will be.

---- Don't forget to make a date in your diary for The Barnet Eye Xmas party and Community awards at Mill Hill Rugby Club on Fri 14th December at Mill Hill Rugby Club at 8pm. We really hope you can come down and say Hi. Admission is Free.