I have recently received a great deal of correspondence about the waste services being provided by Daventry District Council (DDC). I share many of your concerns about this matter. With this in mind, I have asked for an update on the matter and asked what DDC is doing to resolve the situation. I have received the following response:
"The Council is currently having to address five linked issues:
•Moving to its new environmental services provider, Daventry Norse. Whilst this is a positive development, it has resulted in changes in systems and, to a degree, personnel. This will inevitably affect the service for some time. We are, of course, doing everything we can to smooth the transition.
•The replacement of its old waste transfer station. This is essential as the old building was not fit for purpose and carried safety risks. The new building will assist in efficient operations, provide a decent working environment and help control smells. However, waste collection cannot stop for six months whilst the work is done, so Daventry Norse is having to operate temporary arrangements in confined space. This particularly affects operations such as collecting failed bins and delivering new bins. The new waste transfer station should be open in February 2019.
•A change in waste service design to co-mingled recycling. This has required the delivery of around 38,000 new blue-lidded recycling bins. Whilst the vast majority of these were delivered correctly, some properties were nonetheless missed by the delivery contractor. It is taking time to identify and rectify each properties which was missed.
•The change to residual (black bin) waste collections and introduction of garden waste charging have generated large demands for new kitchen waste bins and caddies
•Following from the above, demand for the removal of garden waste bins from people who do not wish to use the garden waste service, and the old recycling boxes. Based on experience elsewhere, we did not expect anything like the level of demand for removals which has actually arisen.
I apologise for inconvenience your constituents have suffered arising from one or more of the above. We are working as hard as possible to remedy each one. In time, I am confident the residents of the District will have a service they are pleased with. Even at this point, I would point out that the vast majority of collections and requests are being addressed satisfactorily, and indeed a number of positive comments have been received."