Enterprise PLC won the 15 year £300m contract to provide Ealing's Household waste and recycling service. It started on 1st April - but it's been no joke for residents.
Labour controlled Ealing Council got an angry reaction when they announced that residents must pay a £40 per year 'Garden Tax' if they wanted their garden refuse collected by the new contractor. The service was previously provided as part of the Council Tax. Ealing has kept a zero Council Tax rise by stealth - parking permits jumped from £45 to £77.50 and now there is the £40 for garden refuse. What next - coin operated street lamps?
When the new contract with Enterprise started on 1st April - April Fool's day - Ealing's residents discovered it was no joke. Enterprise were unprepared. Their vehicles didn't fit down some streets, staff were still in training, and they didn't have time to sort the recycle at kerbside so on many rounds they crushed all residents' carefully sorted waste into the back of one big dump truck! The chaos led residents to suspect Enterprise were simply sending the recycling to landfill. A video was even posted on YouTube showing contractors slinging the waste into one big lorry.
All the carefully sorted bottles, cans, newspapers, plastics, batteries and cardboard are dumped into one truck.
Ask homeowners what they get for their £1,000+ yearly Council Tax, and 'getting the bins emptied and the streets swept' are among the first services that come to mind. Any council seeking to stay in power must make household waste and recycling a priority. Councillors from rival political parties have delighted in the new Labour council's calamitous choice of contractor.
Their choice 'Enterprise PLC' sound like the sort of team name the boys would come up with on Lord Sugar's 'The Apprentice'. The reality is they are a venture capitalist backed (3i investment group) outfit hoping to clean up by providing Council services.
But they haven't cleaned up in Ealing - in fact unlike the previous contractor May Gurney who swept the streets AFTER vehicles had collected all the waste, Enterprise swept my street this morning 5 hours BEFORE the recycle collectors dropped stuff all over it.
I tweeted Council leader Julian Bell with photographic proof of Enterrise's unjoined up approach to the task. He responded 'We r aware synchronisation is not fully working yet and have told Enterprise to re sweep streets after collections.'
Synchronisation? Oh dear what would Lord Sugar say?
Yes, you're ahead of me....'You're fired!'
When the new contract with Enterprise started on 1st April - April Fool's day - Ealing's residents discovered it was no joke. Enterprise were unprepared. Their vehicles didn't fit down some streets, staff were still in training, and they didn't have time to sort the recycle at kerbside so on many rounds they crushed all residents' carefully sorted waste into the back of one big dump truck! The chaos led residents to suspect Enterprise were simply sending the recycling to landfill. A video was even posted on YouTube showing contractors slinging the waste into one big lorry.
All the carefully sorted bottles, cans, newspapers, plastics, batteries and cardboard are dumped into one truck. The food waste is kept separate (no doubt much to the relief of the workers back at the 'materials recycling facility where it is claimed the waste is hand re-sorted)
Ask homeowners what they get for their £1,000+ yearly Council Tax, and 'getting the bins emptied and the streets swept' are among the first services that come to mind. Any council seeking to stay in power must make household waste and recycling a priority. Councillors from rival political parties have delighted in the new Labour council's calamitous choice of contractor.
Their choice 'Enterprise PLC' sound like the sort of team name the boys would come up with on Lord Sugar's 'The Apprentice'. The reality is they are a venture capitalist backed (3i investment group) outfit hoping to clean up by providing Council services.
But they haven't cleaned up in Ealing - in fact unlike the previous contractor May Gurney who swept the streets AFTER vehicles had collected all the waste, Enterprise swept my street this morning 5 hours BEFORE the recycle collectors dropped stuff all over it.
I tweeted Council leader Julian Bell with photographic proof of Enterrise's unjoined up approach to the task. He responded 'We r aware synchronisation is not fully working yet and have told Enterprise to re sweep streets after collections.'
Synchronisation? Oh dear what would Lord Sugar say?
Yes, you're ahead of me....'You're fired!'
1 comment:
this has to be the worst collection service ever rubbish not collected 18\07\2016 called am Tuesday told would be collected in 24 hours rang again Wednesday told it would be collected that day rang again Thursday told it would be collected that day rang again Friday told it would be collected in 24 hours ealing council put in a complaint to contractors and said they would be fined a company that are playing at running a service and the previous week recycling lorry called at 10 pm this has to be the crappies most useless unforgiven my time wasting service that has ever had the front to apply for a contract as much use as a ashtray on a motorbike yours steve embleton w13 9un
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