Middlesbrough mayor quizzed on 'bit of a saga' garden waste changeover

Middlesbrough Mayor Chris Cooke has labelled the new brown bins roll-out in the town as a “bit of a saga” at a community meeting where he was quizzed by residents.

Mr Cooke reiterated the council’s plans to provide two free added collections beginning in March next year to subscribers to the new garden waste collection scheme, which costs £40 annually.

There was confusion over the collection of old green bins with the council criticised over poor communications, while some residents have had long waits for the new brown bins, which are microchipped, to be delivered. Mr Cooke said: “It’s been a bit of a saga, but we are getting to the end of it.”

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He told the meeting in Stainton that the council would be giving away old green bins no longer in use to allotment holders in the town so they could be used for composting. Meanwhile, there were still 1,100 brown bins left to deliver to homes, although that included some new orders.

Mr Cooke said: “We ordered 14,000 brown bins, but have had to order again [because of demand].” He also described take-up of the subscription scheme as now topping 20,000 households.

The Labour mayor was asked why the local authority awarded the £1.1m contract for the new brown bins - which also included the supply of new black rubbish bins - to a German firm SSI Schaefer Limited. It was previously challenged by a representative of Rotherham-based IPL Plastics, which said it had no opportunity to bid for the contract and questioned whether regulations had been breached and best value for money achieved.

Mr Cooke said: “They [SSI Schaefer] were the only one that was able to do all the different elements. The delivery, the [QR code] stickering, all the bits we needed.”

One resident told Mr Cooke that the delivery of the bins had been “cocked up totally”. The mayor responded: “We didn’t deliver them, the company themselves delivered them.”

Councillors have criticised the changeover to the new green waste collection service as a “shambles” and a “mess”, while Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Simon Clarke said the local authority was responsible for “another calamity”.

The council has said the switch to new brown bins means all three bins used in Middlesbrough, including for household waste and recycling, can be collected by the same type of refuse truck “increasing the resilience of the service”.

The move was agreed in the setting of a new budget for 2024/25 with the cash-strapped council aiming to make millions of pounds worth of financial savings, having staved off potential bankruptcy with the receipt of Government exceptional support. There will also be a move from weekly to fortnightly household waste collections in July.

FAQs and the answers to them regards the garden waste subscription scheme have been published online here.

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