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58
SECTION G.
REFUSE COLLECTION AND DISPOSAL
Mr. Crowe reports: —
The collection of household refuse is the one service of the
Council which brings the Authority into close contact with its
residents each week. It is, therefore, important if complaints are
to be avoided to provide a satisfactory and efficient service. Every
effort is made to achieve this object and I am pleased to report
that a regular weekly service was maintained throughout the whole
district during the year with only slight disturbances on a few days
immediately prior to and following Bank holidays.
It is essential, in my view, to collect regularly on the same day
each week and the collecting teams are organised with this in view.
The contract for the hire of a refuse vehicle to serve the rural
part of the area having been terminated on the 31st March, the entire
district is now served by the Council's own vehicles.
There are six teams of collectors operating in the district, each
team working with two vehicles and drivers. A relay system is
operated so that there is no waste of collectors time whilst the
vehicle is travelling to the tip to dispose of its load. The work of
each team is so arranged that when one vehicle is travelling to and
from the tip, all the collectors are engaged on loading the remaining
vehicle.
In a residential area such as this the distance between the
dustbin position at the rear of the premises and the refuse vehicle
is, in the majority of cases, considerable. Especially is this so in
roads which have a width of grass verge in addition to the footpath.
It is for this reason that the collectors are supplied with skips, thus
saving one visit to each house.
In addition to the collection of household refuse from some
24,000 premises, collection of trade refuse is made from approximately
220 shop premises and offices. A vehicle with driver and
a collector are engaged on this work and an annual charge is made
for this service.
Frequent collections are made each week from the two large
hospitals and weekly collections from the numerous schools, vehicles
and personnel apart from the normal teams are being engaged on
this work.
The Council owns a fleet of sixteen refuse collecting vehicles,
one of which is of the dual-tip rear loading type and as replacements
take place, it is hoped that with the addition of more of these
vehicles, the loading will be carried out in a more cleanly manner,
especially on windy days.