Concerns raised about missed bin collections

BIN collections in Annandale and Eskdale have come under the spotlight after a councillor raised concerns about the area’s higher-than-average rate of missed uplifts.

Annandale South Councillor Sean Marshall raised the issue at Wednesday’s Annandale and Eskdale area committee, pointing to data showing the area has recorded more missed collections due to vehicle problems and resource issues than other parts of Dumfries and Galloway.

And council chiefs admitted that “staffing pressures” and vehicle issues were primary factors behind some bins not being uplifted.

Councillor Marshall underlined figures in a council report which showed 13 missed collections in Annandale and Eskdale due to vehicle issues and 18 due to resource problems — higher than comparable figures elsewhere in the region.

He also highlighted that Annandale and Eskdale recorded ten missed collections due to weather, compared to a combined total of just seven across the rest of Dumfries and Galloway.

The councillor said: “Is there a particular reason why Annandale and Eskdale seems to be suffering from missed collections?”

Alan Mawson, the council’s head of facilities, waste and neighbourhood services, explained that vehicles are rotated across the region to balance mileage and utilisation. He insisted there was nothing to suggest the vehicles operating in Annandale and Eskdale were less reliable than bin lorries elsewhere.

On the resource issue, Mr Mawson said: “What we’ve got is some challenges around the full staff complement. When we do see spikes in absence on a normal basis, we see some impacts on waste because we don’t have enough built-in resilience around the staffing numbers to cope with that.”

However, he argued that the situation had since improved, saying: “We’ve managed to recruit more crews across the region, which will have a positive impact on what we see as these resource issues.”

On the weather-related issues, Mr Mawson explained that refuse collection vehicles will not travel down ungritted roads in icy or snowy conditions due to the risk to staff safety.

He argued that the overall statistics were good, saying: “We’re at 97.58 percent collection across the region, and no different predominantly within those margins is what we see in Annandale and Eskdale.”

In total, 932,609 bins were successfully collected in Annandale and Eskdale last year.

Of the 23,126 unsuccessful collections recorded, nearly a third were intentional non-collections during the festive period, leaving around 15,500 genuinely missed uplifts across the year.