East Dunbartonshire Council accused of failing elderly people over bin collections

East Dunbartonshire Council has been accused of failing elderly people over bin collections.

Councillors in the Tory/LibDem administration flagged up on Facebook accounts yesterday (Wednesday) that garden waste green bin uplifts would be restarting in a few days time.

But local resident Anne Anderson (78) who has no internet access or social media, said she would not have known the service was resuming on Monday, May 25, had the Herald not personally got in touch with her to let her know.

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She said: “I have a huge build-up of garden waste. What would have happened if I had missed the waste collectors? Would I have had to wait for another fortnight?”

Anne, from Milngavie, and three other residents in East Dunbartonshire, contacted the Milngavie & Bearsden Herald and sister paper, the Kirkintilloch Herald on Tuesday to ask if we knew when the green bins would be uplifted.

The garden waste service has not been in operation since lockdown, resulting in an eight-week build-up of waste and the added problem of a huge rise in the amount of fly-tipping in East Dunbartonshire.

One local resident wrote: “Dear MB Herald, Would it be possible for your paper to find out when the green bins are to be emptied? “No one seems to know and the council’s website is a nightmare to handle.

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“If you could get an answer to this mystery it would be appreciated very much.”

The Herald got in touch with the council on Tuesday. But we still did not know of the date by the time the paper went to press at lunchtime on Wednesday.

However, a press release was sent out later with an embargo of midnight today (Thursday).

We later found out that several councillors had flagged up the May 25 date on their social media sites on Wednesday morning.

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One Conservative councillor posted: “Green bins will start to be emptied from next week.”

Anne was furious. She said: “Because I don’t have social media, I and many other mainly older people who buy the paper every week are being excluded. It’s shocking that the council did not see fit to inform us through the Herald in time. There must be many other people who won’t know to put their bins out.”

Many older people who are isolating have been receiving the Herald by home delivery.

We have asked the council how they intend to inform other residents without access to the internet and social media about the resumption of green bin uplifts and are awaiting their response.

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Here is the full press release from the council which was embargoed until midnight today.

“The Council will restart garden waste collections from Monday 25 May, following on from the reintroduction of full recycling services this week.

While general waste collections have continued throughout the Covid 19 crisis, garden waste collections were suspended on March 19.

Council co-leader Vaughan Moody said, “After taking measures to ensure the safety of workforce, we are pleased to confirm that garden waste collections will resume from Monday 25 May.

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“We know this news will be welcomed and we would like to thank residents for their patience and support as we have sought to balance the maintenance of essential services with the need to protect our employees and meet government and NHS guidelines on social distancing.

“From Monday, green bins should be presented for collection once a fortnight on the same day as the grey bin for general waste. The brown and blue bins will be collected on alternate weeks to the garden and general waste, as previously.

Council co-leader Andrew Polson added, “I would like to thank our waste team for all their hard work over the last eight weeks of lockdown. They have worked to continue an essential service during what has been a time of great uncertainty and upheaval and have adapted swiftly to the new working arrangements as we move forward in our response to the Covid crisis.”

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