Councillors and residents are putting pressure on Kirklees Council to come clean over the failure to collect a reported 4,000 household bins.
Black and green bins were not emptied late last week in parts of Meltham, Holmfirth, Slaithwaite, Linthwaite, Wooldale, Scholes, Holmbridge, Honley, New Mill and Thongsbridge.
There have been claims bin staff “walked out” in a row over working hours but councillors have only been told that the problems were caused by “significant operational difficulties.”
Clr Musarrat Khan, the council’s Cabinet member responsible for bin collections, refused to explain the reasons behind what happened.
She told the Examiner she would issue a statement on Monday but wanted to e-mail an explanation to ward councillors first as it would “not be right to learn something like that from the paper.”
When pressed she said: “All I can say is that we have had some operational issues in relation to our workforce.”
She refused to deny claims that binmen had “walked out” and said: “I want to inform ward councillors first.”
Councillors said they would be demanding answers from the authority on Monday morning.
Residents said the problems were not confined to HD9 postcodes as first suggested.
Carl Ellwood said: “It’s more widespread than HD9 – plenty of green recycling bins in HD7 weren’t emptied on Thursday this week either. Going off the previous efforts of the council, I won’t hold my breath for collections to be caught up. They will end up leaving it until the next scheduled collection.”
Chris Newton said: “I live in an area without wheelie bins. I have to take my bags up to the roadside, as do at least five of my neighbours. There is now a mountain of bin bags up Dunford Road. I imagine the rats will be there soon.”
Stephanie Coldwell claimed: “Bins in Moldgreen haven’t been emptied for nearly six weeks now. Come on Kirklees Council, sort it out.”
Several councillors contacted by the Examiner said they hadn’t been told the specific cause of the problems.
Clr Nigel Patrick, who represents Holme Valley South, said the council hadn’t revealed what it had meant by ‘operational issues.’
He said: “I have asked the question. They say they had ‘significant operational issues’ on Wednesday which had a knock-on effect. They are busy trying to catch up. I am told they will have caught up on Tuesday.”
Clr Patrick said he couldn’t understand why Kirklees were hiding behind vague explanations.
“I don’t know why they just can’t tell us. Is it staffing issues or a breakdown? People’s bins are full and if they are left out and it’s windy there will be litter all over.”
Lynn Myland, a former Kirklees employee who lives in Thongsbridge, contacted the council after her bin wasn’t collected earlier this week.
She said: “They told me I wasn’t the only one and that over 4,000 households had been affected. I was flabbergasted.
“They told me there had been operational issues. I asked them to be more specific but they said no. They didn’t want to give me an answer. I asked if the staff were on strike but they said no.
“I know that the council once signed up to the Plain English guidelines and are supposed to be plain and transparent. I want them to tell me in plain English what’s happening because ‘operational issues’ means nothing.”
