Epping Forest Christmas 2014 revised recycling and rubbish collection dates

Collecting trade waste on #OurDay

Because of the Christmas and New Year bank holidays, the council will collect rubbish and recycling later than usual over the next couple of weeks. The changes are:

  • Thursday 25 December –> Saturday 27 December
  • Friday 26 December –> Monday 29 December
  • Monday 29 December –> Tuesday 30 December
  • Tuesday 30 December –> Wednesday 31 December
  • Wednesday 31 December –> Friday 2 December
  • Thursday 1 January –> Saturday 3 January
  • Friday 2 January –> Monday 5 January
  • Monday 5 January –> Tuesday 6 January
  • Tuesday 6 January –> Wednesday 7 January
  • Wednesday 7 January –> Thursday 8 January
  • Thursday 8 January –> Friday 9 January
  • Friday 9 January –> Saturday 10 January

Back to normal on Monday 12 January. You can find out more about the refuse and recycling service in Epping Forest at the recycling and waste section of the council’s website including details of standard collection dates and whether it’s a recycling (clear sack) or non-recyclable (grey bin) collection week and what you can recycle.

Photo: Epping Forest DC CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Epping Forest August bank holiday revised refuse and recycling dates

Because Monday is a Bank Holiday, the council will collect rubbish and recycling one day later than usual this week.

  • Monday 27 August –> Tuesday 28 August
  • Tuesday 28 August –> Wednesday 29 August
  • Wednesday 29 August –> Thursday 30 August
  • Thursday 30 August –> Friday 31 August
  • Friday 31 August –> Saturday 1 September

Back to normal on Monday 3 September.

You can find out more about the refuse and recycling service in Epping Forest at the recycling and waste section of the council’s website including details of standard collection dates.

Epping Forest Refuse and Recycling Collection Dates

Because of the numerous bank holidays over the Christmas period waste collections won’t be back to normal until Monday 24 January. These are the remaining revised collection dates:

  • Normal collection date –> revised collection date
  • Thursday 6 January –> Monday 10 January
  • Friday 7 January –> Tuesday 11 January
  • Monday 10 January –> Wednesday 12 January
  • Tuesday 11 January –> Thursday 13 January
  • Wednesday 12 January –> Friday 14 January
  • Thursday 13 January –> Saturday 15 January
  • Friday 14 January –> Monday 17 January
  • Monday 17 January –> Tuesday 18 January
  • Tuesday 18 January –> Wednesday 19 January
  • Wednesday 19 January –> Thursday 20 January
  • Thursday 20 January –> Friday 21 January
  • Friday 21 January –> Saturday 22 January

Snow news in Epping Forest

A quick pointer to the district council’s snow update page, which is now being updated pretty regularly.

Recycling blue box covered in snowWaste and recycling collections

The bad news is that waste and recycling collections were suspended completely today because of accidents. (I dread to think how long it will now take to get back to normal. There are roads in Buckhurst Hill that haven’t received a wheelie bin collection since early December.)

Pavements

However as a result our pavements are finally receiving some attention as waste collection staff have been made available to grit shopping centres and car parks. There’s been no specific mention of pavements leading to transport hubs or pavements near schools so I’ve followed this up.

Gritting

At a Local Highways Panel meeting six weeks ago Essex County Council told us that it had record quantities of salt in store for this winter – far more than it actually expected to use. I was therefore concerned to learn that it is already cutting back on its gritting programme for the reasons set out here. That link also gives details of the roads that will still be treated.

In Epping the only road included is the High Road. This is really bad news for heavily used roads which are usually gritted like Lindsey Street, Station Road and Bower Hill, which could be treacherous by morning. The county council expects to be able to return to its usual gritting programme on Sunday evening.

Finally

The local media is covering the snow episode (I don’t think we can yet call it a crisis) assiduously. BBC Essex’s essential information page contains some useful links and should be authoritative about school closures. Plenty of news also at Everything Epping Forest and the Epping Forest Guardian.

Rubbish collection update

Now the Christmas break is over the district council is much better at posting information on its website. The latest update is here and explains:

Residents are requested to place all waste at the normal collection point…

For as long as access is difficult and until the weather improves we will use all available resources to collect as much waste as we can. Once the weather improves and normal operations commence we will prioritise collections and collect from those properties that have been waiting the longest for a collection.

So put your rubbish out as usual but don’t assume it will be collected on the day you expect.

Council apologises for waste collection problems

Epping Forest District Council yesterday published this apology for delays to the waste collection service as a result of bad weather.

“The Council is very sorry for the difficulties which have arisen during the period 22 December 2009 through Christmas and the New Year period.”

Because of the combined effect of the revised Christmas collection calendar and the bad weather some people will go a month between recycling collections – which will not surprise anyone who has walked around local streets and seen the sacks piled high.

Recycling sacks awaiting collection in Beaconfield Road, Epping

At Monday evening’s Cabinet meeting we were told that the other collections (food waste and residual waste) should now be more or less up to date. Unfortunately it looks likely that today’s snowfall could well cause further problems.

Of course the council’s priority at the moment must be to keep the refuse collection service running and collect as much of the missed rubbish as possible. Once this has happened we have been promised that a review will take place and any necessary lessons will be learnt.

Questions to answer include:

  • What contingency plans existed?
  • What is the division of responsibility between Epping Forest district council and its contractors, SITA?
  • Was it possible to bring in any additional resources (equipment and/or people) especially when existing equipment failed?
  • Why wasn’t it possible to provide up to date information on the website or telephone enquiry line between Christmas and the New Year?

No doubt there are plenty of others so feel free to suggest them to me. I’ve asked council officers to put this issue on the agenda of the next Scrutiny Committee so that councillors can take up residents’ concerns and contribute to the review.

Epping Forest Christmas and New Year Rubbish Collection Dates

At this time of year the rubbish collection dates shift around a bit to take account of the Bank Holidays. The revised collection dates are (normal collection date –> revised collection date):

  •  Friday 25 December –> Tuesday 29 December
  • Monday 28 December –> Wednesday 30 December
  • Tuesday 29 December –> Thursday 31 December
  • Wednesday 30 December –> SATURDAY 2 January
  • Thursday 31 December –> Monday 4 January
  • Friday 1 January –> Tuesday 5 January
  • Monday 4 January –> Wednesday 6 January
  • Tuesday 5 January –> Thursday 7 January
  • Wednesday 6 January –> Friday 8 January
  • Thursday 7 January –> SATURDAY 9 January
  • Friday 8 January –> Monday 11 January
  • Monday 11 January –> Tuesday 12 January
  • Tuesday 12 January –> Wednesday 13 January
  • Wednesday 13 January –> Thursday 14 January
  • Thursday 14 January –> Friday 15 January
  • Friday 15 January –> SATURDAY 16 January

Back to normal on Monday 18 January.

Christmas trees can be left out for collection alongside the food and garden waste bin. (Cut it in half if it is more than three feet tall.)

There are usually also special arrangements after Christmas which permit the collection of side waste (i.e. rubbish left beside the wheelie bin). This allows for the volume of refuse generated by seasonal present-giving and consumption. No doubt the district council will publish details soon.