BARNSLEY Council’s ruling cabinet members were quizzed over the disruption to bin collections at yesterday’s full council meeting following residents’ anger over delays.
Collections have been missed over the last six weeks due to the severe weather and council bosses are hoping that any missed collections will soon be caught up.
At yesterday’s meeting in the town hall chamber, a number of councillors asked for more information regarding the current state of affairs.
Coun Jake Lodge, who represents the Worsbrough ward, asked: “What lessons have been learnt from the delays to waste collections following the severe weather of January 2025?”
Coun James Higginbottom, cabinet spokesperson for environment and highways, replied: “The snow and ice experienced at the start of January was the most severe in 15 years.
“In many parts of the borough bin collections were simply impossible to complete in a manner that would be safe for our crews and residents.
“In a typical week, we empty around 115,000 bins in Barnsley but were unable to empty the vast majority of those bins in the ‘ice week’, which caused a huge backlog into the following week.
“This is not a position unique to Barnsley, with every local authority in the region had significant waste challenges because of the snow and ice.
“Since then, our waste management team have worked incredibly hard to deliver a recovery plan that would stabilise the service and get collections back on track.
“I am pleased to report that the backlog is predominantly cleared on grey waste and good progress is being made to catch up on recycling.
“I entirely appreciate how frustrating this is for members and residents and thank them for their continued patience as services are recovered.
“It would be near impossible to have a waste service that is fully equipped to deal with this type of weather event.
“However, we will review our response in the coming weeks and ensure that any lessons are factored into future contingency planning.”
Coun Steve Bullcock, of the Kingstone ward, said: “In advance of Storm Eowyn the council advised Kingstone ward residents that no brown or blue bins would be emptied on Friday January 24 and that the higher priority grey bins would be collected instead. Can the cabinet member provide an explanation for why the service collected brown bins after stating they would not and left grey bins overflowing and spilling rubbish into the streets?”
Coun Higginbottom said: “As you will be aware, the dangerously high winds caused by Storm Eowyn created the risk that bins presented at the kerbside would be blown over so the advice to residents was to return recycling bins to their properties and present them again the following week.
“However, we do operate a smaller bin wagon for narrower streets, and it was this vehicle and crew that did manage to empty some recycling bins on Friday January 24.
“Since then, grey bins have been prioritised for recovery given the type of waste those bins contain and I am pleased to report, in the main, that grey rounds are now caught up and good progress continues to be made to clear the recycling backlog.”
Coun Bullcock said: “It is noted that since the introduction of the ‘be safe, work safe, target zero’ a significant increase across the borough in residential dustbins being tagged red and unsafe to empty by refuse teams which subsequently means bins in some cases are left on our streets and backings unemptied. How are the council monitoring that tagging is in line with council policy and being followed up appropriately?”
Coun Higginbottom said: “The health, safety and wellbeing of our staff and residents is paramount.
“Everyone who leaves home in the morning to go to work should expect to come home that evening, but sadly waste operatives in other parts of the country have lost their lives on the job.
“Members should be under no illusions that the waste industry is one of the most dangerous you can work in.
“That’s why we are operating the ‘Be Safe, Work Safe, Vision Zero’ programme; to continue to drive up safety standards and reduce the numbers of accidents.
“As part of the programme, damaged or broken bins present a danger to crews with the potential for bins to split open and either rubbish or bins to fall on them.
“Where a bin is damaged and cannot be safely emptied, these are tagged by our crews and need to be replaced.
“To ensure consistency, supervisors conduct spot checks of tagged bins and these checks have shown that our crews have been right to tag in all cases.”
Concerns around fly-tipped rubbish, isolation following severe weather and waste recycling centres were also raised at the meeting.
Coun Will Fielding, of the Dodworth ward, said: “Following the recent challenging cold weather, will the council commit to reviewing the grit bin policy to assist in keeping our streets safe for those who experienced isolation and challenges during the week the snow made many of the pavements in Dodworth ward inaccessible?”
Coun Higginbottom replied: “The arctic blast which swept through the UK and Barnsley at the start of this year brought with it a significant amount of snow, ice and at times blizzard like conditions. In such situations our winter service plans are activated with our aim being to keep the borough moving as well as we can, within the resources we have.
“The absolute priority is to ensure safe passage on the highway as far as is reasonably practicable, which is why gritting routes prioritise primary routes (around 44 per cent of the network) before moving onto secondary routes such as side streets and estates.
“Between Saturday 4 and Monday January 13, our gritting crews were out 24/7 for eight days solid.
“They deserve nothing but our heartfelt thanks and gratitude for the work they do.
“In addition, we operate a ‘snow plan’ through our Neighbourhood Services to grit priority areas including roads and pavements around high streets and urban centres, schools, medical facilities and sheltered housing.
“We also provide 550 grit bins in areas that meet our established criteria, so that residents can grit their own streets, but I would emphasise that grit in these bins is meant solely for use on the carriageway, not footways or private drives.
“Residents and members are able to request grit bins which are assessed against the criteria and subject to a site visit before a decision is made.
“In the recent period we received well over 400 requests and the team are working their way through the assessment process.
“We will be undertaking a full review of all aspects of the winter service, including grit bins, at the end of the current winter period in preparation for next winter and beyond.”
Coun Bullcock said: “It was reported in the Barnsley Chronicle late December 2024 that Barnsley council had come under scrutiny from Department for Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) as a consequence of the fact that around 30 per cent of the total amount of illegal fly tipping reported in Barnsley was being reported in just two council wards of which Kingstone is one of those two council wards. The residents of Kingstone would be grateful if the cabinet member would declare what plans and actions are being considered or in place to reduce that 30 per cent figure which in Kingstone case has been very high for a significant number of years?”
Coun Higginbottom said: “Fly tipping, dumped rubbish and litter are an appalling blight on our communities and I wholeheartedly believe in Coun Bullcock’s passion for this subject.
“As a council, we are taking firm action to tackle this blight and we will proactively prosecute the people responsible.
“We are doing this in partnership with our communities.
Our Litter and Environmental Crime Plan, co-produced by volunteers, partners and council services, sets out how this will be done. The plan includes:
better enforcement, including tougher fines for perpetrators and crushing the vehicles involved
promoting community ownership and local partnerships
changing behaviours and education
improving local infrastructure and resources
strengthening our service offer.
“As part of the 2025/26 budget, we will also be bringing forward plans for additional investment in Neighbourhood Services to tackle areas of environmental blight, which I am sure Coun Bullcock will be supporting wholeheartedly at the Budget Council meeting.”
Coun Lodge said: “The Household Waste Recycling Centre on West Street, Worsbrough is incredibly well used, but in peak times can significantly impact residents and the wider highway network locally with queuing on the highway. What additional measures could be brought in to deal with this?”
Coun Higginbottom said: “The operators of the Household Waste Recycling Centres, H.W.Martins, work diligently to direct customers on-site when they arrive, ensuring that all the available parking space is maximised.
“They also help people to empty their vehicles, which helps to increase the throughput of visitors at the site. ( “If they need to, they have the authority to close the site if queues build up on the highway.
“However, our experience has shown that closing the site can sometimes have a detrimental effect on managing the queues, as it may cause further congestion.
“Worsbrough Household Waste Recycling Centre will be closed from April 2025 to mid-August 2025 for essential drainage works needed to ensure sites continue to comply with their environmental permits.
“This presents an excellent opportunity for us to collaborate and review the operation of the site and explore the possibility of making improvements to the highway network to better manage the traffic flow and alleviate some of the congestion issues we’ve been facing.”
