Statement on ‘hard to reach’ bin collections

Statement on ‘hard to reach’ bin collections from Tony Watson, Head of Environment and Operations:

From 30^th September 2019, waste and recycling collections for some people in Rossendale will change.

People living in hard to reach homes, usually rural properties, which are not suitable for the standard Refuse Collection Vehicles, or have road surfaces which are unsuitable to travel on, will change to a ‘lane end’ bin collection service.

There are approximately 742 hard to reach rural properties across the borough that have been in receipt of a doorstep service – with 220 been judged to be unsuitable for safe access.

Collecting these bins holds a certain amount of risk, including compromising the health and safety of not just the Council’s staff, but also the respective residents and visitors, due to the condition of the access roads and turning areas, which can be dangerous.

There have been 22 breakdowns that have affected the council’s vehicles servicing hard to reach properties in the last two years that have also impacted on service delivery.

With the new collections, your bin/bag collection point will be at the end of the lane, where it meets the adopted highway. This change is designed to improve recycling rates by providing a more frequent collection of recyclables and reduce the risks associated with collecting waste and recycling from remote locations

The Council has an assisted collection service for those properties where the residents are unable to get their bins to the collection point for health reasons.

People will still have a collection every week – one week rubbish will be collected from the lilac sacks/green bin, the next week recycling will be collected from the green sacks/grey bin for paper and cardboard and blue sacks/bins for glass, cans and plastics, which may be on a different day and/or cycle to your current arrangements.

If your home and collection will be affected by the change, you will be receiving a letter from us with full details about the new system this week. Should you consider that access to your property can be improved to enable doorstep collections to continue from your property, instead of from where the lane meets the adopted highway, we would be happy to discuss this further.