Madam

I write in response to the negative comments in the press by some councillors and residents regarding the Christmas rubbish collection. I hope the following explanation addresses their concerns.

There were two competing services during the holiday period, namely winter gritting and waste collection, both of which required HGV drivers, loaders and supervisors. All of the manpower was on a voluntary basis and, as the Cabinet member for highways, I am really appreciative of those who volunteered their services over the holiday period to do their duty for Ceredigion residents.

Unfortunately some of the volunteers went down with flu which affected the availability of volunteers, some of whom were used for both winter gritting and waste collection; where the gritting of designated major routes will always take priority in the interests of the safety of motorists.

Over the Christmas week, the winter service crews were out gritting countywide on six different days; there were five vehicle crews at both Glanyrafon and Penrhos, plus loaders and supervisors and there were 25 deployments between both depots. Extra HGV drivers had to be deployed due to some drivers exceeding their hours.

There were 190 waste collection rounds scheduled over the two-week holiday period; 87 per cent were completed as planned, seven per cent were partially completed on the correct days and 6 per cent were not serviced due to various reasons such as illness, drivers and loaders employed on winter maintenance duties and some HGV drivers exceeding their hours.

As an example, Aberaeron had eight collection rounds, of which seven were collected with one not serviced.

I appreciate the frustration of residents whose waste was not collected but there was a lot of publicity prior to the Christmas holiday, including purchasing advertising space in local papers, on what action to take should waste not be collected on the published day. The county councillors were well-informed of the required action to be taken in the event of a round having not been collected so they could advise their residents. The Borth Ward suffered some missed collections and I put a notice on our community website to keep residents informed.

Generally we only experience waste collection problems when there is a clash with winter gritting.

Yours etc,

Cllr Ray Quant, deputy leader and Cabinet member for highways, Ceredigion County Council.

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