Council boss in rubbish pledge (From South Wales Guardian)

Council boss in rubbish pledge

5:30pm Thursday 26th April 2012 in News

CARMARTHENSHIRE county council chief executive Mark James has spoken after residents experienced problems with refuse collection over the past three weeks.

Residents from across the county – including householders in Ammanford, Betws and Llandybie – have complained that rubbish has been left outside their homes.

Now County Hall’s chief executive has pledged that “continuity of service” will be maintained.

“The council has agreed a set of new terms and conditions with its employees, which has seen a single system of pay implemented,” he said.

“This has abolished some of the very outdated bonus schemes enjoyed by some employees.

“Furthermore, as part of the rationalisation of terms and conditions, we have abolished the practice of ‘job and finish’ whereby refuse collectors have been able to leave work as soon as they finished collecting the refuse.

“The implementation of the new working arrangements means that we cannot reinstate the previous ‘job and finish’ practice, as this would be simply unfair on all other staff who work their full contracted hours each week.

“While we hope to resolve this matter soon through ongoing consultation with the refuse collectors, the county council will not leave the situation continue as it is and will consider all means at its disposal to ensure that continuity of service is ensured.”

Meanwhile, council chiefs are reassuring residents that action is being taken to clear the backlog of missed rubbish collections.