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Binmageddon! Thousands miss out on council rubbish leaflet

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The council has managed to miss out thousands of Croydon residents, in areas as far apart as Upper Norwood, Shirley and Coulsdon, from deliveries of a leaflet with important information about changes to collection days for their domestic refuse and recycling.

The council’s latest bin collection leaflet – a rare thing in parts of the borough

Inside Croydon discovered the failed leaflet delivery following our report yesterday on the council’s poorly publicised Christmas rubbish collection service.

That report included mention of the planned change of regular collections days. Scores of loyal readers responded to say that the council had kept them in the dark about the changes and that they had never received the detailed, six-page gatefold council leaflet.

A senior source at the Town Hall has confirmed to Inside Croydon that the council is planning to “redeliver” the leaflet to at least 24 streets. Problems in deliveries due to coronavirus have been blamed.

The changed collection days were supposed to be implemented at the start of December and are to be in place at least until November 2021. Different areas were due to receive different leaflets, depending on their collection day.

Other readers have contacted the website to confirm that while they had received the leaflet, it had landed on their doormat after the collection days were supposed to have begun at the start of this month. They have also confirmed that collections have continued through December according to the old schedule.

According to one reader, a resident of the bin bag-blighted Oval Road in Addiscombe, “I have received nothing. Our bin schedule finished in November, so have just been guessing what’s going to be collected.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas on Oval Road in Addiscombe, where residents say they have not had any council leaflet on bin collection days

“Oval Road has a particular issue with waste and I am dreading the state of the road by Sunday. It’s going to be wretched. Thanks again, Croydon Council, for ballsing up a simple task.”

Another reader wrote, “Bloody hell! We definitely haven’t received any leaflet. And given that (thanks to flytippers) there’s currently a bathtub, bedframe and two mattresses in our communal bins, the rubbish situation is already, well, rubbish.”

Another reader related that their elderly parents, who live on Orchard Avenue in Shirley, had never received the leaflet. “They’re trying to use the Croydon Council website,” our reader wrote, “but they aren’t very good with technology, so it’s a bit hit and miss with them.”

Another reader, living in South Croydon, noted, “We haven’t had a new bin collection leaflet. I just assumed they couldn’t afford it this year.”

Other readers who say that they have not received the council’s leaflet included some living in Coulsdon, as well as several in South Norwood and Upper Norwood.

The change to the bin collection schedule – the third to be imposed on Croydon residents in less than four years – is at the behest of the council’s rubbish contractors Veolia.

Croydon’s bankrupt council has recently increased its annual payments to Veolia by £21million, largely because the contractors complained that under the deal agreed as recently as 2018 through the South London Waste Partnership, which inflicted “Binmageddon!” across the borough, they were being asked to do too much for too little.

So much for the council’s rigorous procurement procedure.

The changed schedule of bin collections is unlikely to see any improvement in service for Croydon Council Tax-payers, but is probably viewed as “more efficient” – meaning  cheaper – for the benefit of Veolia.


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