#BINMAGEDDON!: Unable to rely on the cash-strapped council’s very well-remunerated press officers to get the message out, someone in the Town Hall has been busy cutting and pasting on social media. Special report from our having-to-work-over-Christmas-break staff, STAN der STEAD
Cutting and pasting: busy Mayor Jason Perry
Cash-strapped Croydon Council has finally found a way to get their money’s worth out of the £81,000 per year they are paying to the part-time Mayor, Jason Perry.
They’ve had Perry doing the council propaganda department’s job for them by posting personal messages on social media about when residents should be putting their bins out over the New Year.
The council dropped a bollock (another one) recently when they circulated leaflets about recycling to households, but failed to include the usual annual calendar of bin collection dates by neighbourhood. A decision was taken more than a year ago to stop issuing the annual calendar leaflet, to try to save the bankrupted borough a few bob.
The council instead directed people to their local libraries to access their webpage and print off the hand guide – even though most of the borough’s libraries are now open only three or four days each week, and all of them have been closed since Christmas Eve.
Missing calendar: the council’s annual leaflet omitted the regular, weekly collection dates
The recycling leaflet – which confirms that Croydon’s incinerator-friendly council has been burning more waste than it recycles – did at least include information about the annual Christmas tree collection dates (a free service, still, which will see Croydon’s pavements strewn with discarded trees through to the end of January) and the changed general waste collection days over the New Year.
Cut and paste: Mayor Perry reached out personally to the people of Croydon
Unperturbed, Croydon’s £81,000 per year Tory Mayor has been busy this week, posting links to that very same information to the Facebook groups of various residents’ associations around the borough.
“Is this really the best use of the executive Mayor’s time?” one Katharine Street insider asked today.
“Given how impotent Perry has proved to be in his first six months in office, perhaps it is. Or maybe it is a task which matches Perry’s skill set?
“It certainly exposes how the administration has concerns about the effectiveness, or lack of it, or their propaganda department, in getting messages out in a timely manner.”
Important detail: the changes to collection days over the next fortnight was only included in a council press release issued on Dec 29
The press office at Fisher’s Folly got round to issuing a press release about Christmas waste collections yesterday, Thursday December 29, just before 5pm.
Cut and paste: Mayor Perry reached out personally to the people of Addiscombe
Who the council’s very well remunerated media staff thought this release might be published or broadcast by so late in the year will be a mystery unlikely ever to be solved. Although the information did, finally, also find its way onto the council’s website.
“Christmas and New Year can produce a lot of waste, but everyone can do their bit to help reduce, reuse, and recycle,” the propaganda department said, ignoring the fact that Croydon Council, together with rubbish contractors Veolia, have been pouring the majority of residents’ carefully-sorted recycling straight into the furnaces of the Beddington incinerator for the last four years.
Cut and paste: Mayor Perry reached out personally to the people of Woodcote, Riddlesdown and Kenley, who appear to think they live in Surrey
There were a couple of snippets of more useful information from the propaganda bunker, though.
“If you have an unused artificial tree or Christmas decorations, as well as old electronics that are being replaced by new gifts, drop them off at Fisher’s Farm to our new Community Reuse Shop.
“Staff collect games, cookware, and many other items that would otherwise go to landfill and fix them up to be re-sold at affordable prices. All proceeds go back into the operation of the shop.” Which is nice.
Cut and paste: Mayor Perry reached out personally to the people of Coulsdon
But then, in their usual lazy manner, the press office failed to provide the hard details necessary for the public to make use of this seemingly progressive arrangement. “Location and operating hours are available on the council website,” the council release says.
The weekly bin collection timetable is now out of kilter until January 16.
So at least Mayor Perry has been spending his time usefully these past couple of days…
Timber!: how you can get your Christmas tree recycled by the council
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