A councillor has called for the resignation of a Lichfield District Council cabinet member after a “monumental mistake” saw the wrong size of recycling bags delivered to local households.
Cllr Joanne Grange made her comments after it was revealed that the ones being issued by Lichfield District Council were a third smaller than they should have been.
The independent member for Chadsmead ward, said that Cllr Ashley Yeates, cabinet member responsible for recycling at the local authority, should step down in the wake of the revelations – which councillors only found out about after reading Lichfield Live:
“I assume Cllr Pullen [leader of the council] will be accepting Cllr Yeates’ resignation from the cabinet in short order?
“I am somewhat surprised that no-one felt it was a good idea to tell councillors about this monumental mistake and I found out at the same time as everyone else in Lichfield.
“Having found out about the mistake I am even more surprised that there is no explanation being circulated to councillors about how this happened. Was the order wrong? Did the supplier send the wrong size? Who accepted the delivery?
“There appears to be no suggested solution to the error. Are the bags that have already been distributed going to be collected and sent back? Will residents have to suffer not having sufficient recycling space until this first batch need replacing?”
“As residents were already going to struggle with one bag, and more will inevitably need a second, how much extra is this error going to cost council taxpayers in additional bags?
“This whole change has been poorly managed and communicated and this latest embarrassment must surely mean someone else needs to take control?”
Cllr Joanne Grange, Lichfield District Council
The incorrectly-sized bags have already begun being distributed to households, with a council spokesperson confirming that people should begin to use them for card and paper and to order more if needed at the end of May.
But Cllr Grange said residents needed resolving sooner.
“This needs a solution and needs one quickly or residents who really want to do the right thing and recycle as much as possible may begin to wonder why they should bother when the council makes it too difficult, given second bags – which are now more important – are apparently not going to be available until the end of May at the earliest.”
Cllr Joanne Grange, Lichfield District Council
Cllr Grange for leader of LDC! Get rid of the useless Pullen, Yeates and Eadie.
Cllr Grange is the voice of reason as usual, I dearly wish she would stand as MP and yet fully understand why she has previously said she won’t.
Dear Lord she knows this subject, she knows what a joke the recycling industry here is, she understands our concerns and peoples anger at this.
Why wasn’t Cllr Grange put in charge of this? Because we wouldn’t be where we are now if she’d been in charge of this.
The councillor should resign from the council not the cabinet. Too many deadbeats on the council
I think it’s best just to shove everything in the bin and forget the recycling. The actions of individuals has minimal impact compared to the huge amounts of energy and resource that goes into making ‘stuff’ that people don’t really need. Without a paradigm shift in consumerism in developed economies we will continue to damage our precious environment. Home recycling is simply a way of making people feel less guilty about throwing stuff away that much of the time wasn’t needed in the first place. It undermines it’s own purpose and makes us feel we are doing ‘good’ throwing stuff in the recycling, when instead it would’ve better buying less in the first place. Throw stuff in the bin and you get a tinge of guilt and will consider buying less, or things with more economical packaging in future.
I haven’t had the pleasure of the blue bag yet, I expect it may come my way tomorrow, though it is black bin day or perhaps next week. So maybe I should await the experience before commenting.
However, judging by the size and scale of the bag in the picture, if it was 3-times that size and filled with paper and cardboard, to shift it would either require wheels (Eureka! You could have a blue plastic bin with wheels – just a thought) or a sack truck.
Our blue bag is overfull after 4/5 days so the rest has to go in black bin as no other option. Told by LDC to wait to get 2 more as none available!! The bag is flimsy will fly away & the velcro is neither good quality nor easy to close. In fact an all round disaster as the excess in land fill is more expensive than recycling saving as it was!!
Our blue bag has been delivered, and is woefully too small. We’re a family of four – and paper/card is the thing we recycle most. The blue bag will last about 3 days – tops. It’s a monumentally badly thought out policy, made worse by the fact it’s smaller than was actually intended – due to some council cock up.
What DOES this council actually do well? I’m struggling to think of anything.
We need a wholesale change at a local level. Pullen (Fabricant’s puppet) and Eadie simply do not have the requisite skills to manage the council effectively.
Please step down and give someone else a shot.
As LDC also purchased the incorrect bags for Tamworth and a number of other councils. If they refuse to accept them, who will be responsible for the cost?
https://procontract.due-north.com/ContractsRegister/ViewContractDetails?contractId=ba9a2240-1a58-ec11-810e-005056b64545&p=7d032552-cf1f-e911-80f2-005056b64545
£456k wasted. I now understand why the £100k wasted on the Bromford mess was described as a small value.
Blue bin full , using black bin for overspill of card n paper , feel for bin men too , bending n lifting up to 2 blue bags on collection , watch the sickness rise or a bin men strike . Don’t blame them tbh.
Here’s a simple idea – just forget the whole blue bag nonsense and go back to the old system.
100% better solution
What an imbecile!! folk aren’t going to keep taking trips to the tip to get rid of the extra waste. The bags are going to be blowing round the streets as they just are not heavy enough for light loads & nowhere big enough for large boxes eg for Tv’s or furniture.
IT’S COMING TO SOMETHING WHEN THERE IS NO ONE THAT CAN GET SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS THIS RIGHT. WHAT HOPE IS THERE FOR REALLY VITAL THINGS!!
Recycle the recycling bag along with the person responsible for its introduction!!
But that I’ll never happen as total failure is acceptable at ldc
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse with this one
Hands down the worst council I’ve ever seen.
Can LDC provide a Council address to which we, the residents they want to use the bags, can return them as they are clearly not fit for purpose.
Let’s all just dump our blue bags in the steps of the council buildings and put an end to this debacle.
Not surprised by anything Lichfield council do. Look at friar’s gate thousands spent devolopment stopped no one takes responsibility
Wake up Lichfield our council is not fit for purpose
The solution adopted by Birmingham and Teeside council – a rigid plastic pod or caddy which sits inside the wheelie bin – looks an easier to use and longer-lasting solution than these flimsy bags.
I take it they were cheaper.
There appears to be a two-tier discriminatory system applied that is not related to the amount of Council Tax paid. Some people are getting purple bins, and some, much smaller blue bags. As the latter are clearly not fit for purpose, why not just supply all households with a purple bin – the contents are kept dry and thus lighter, the bin is on wheels so cuts down on the manual handling operation, and, like blue or brown bins, additional bins can be ordered by households that need them.
As this is the simple solution, I suspect civil servants will not consider it, as they deliberate this matter, probably from the comfort of their home-based office.