Garden waste collection issues

We’ve signed up to the garden waste collection as I prefer it to composting (no patience, and not much space either), but it’s being a complete hassle! Is anyone else using it and finding it brilliant or rubbish?

Last week the garden bin wasn’t collected, and I had to phone and it was sorted two days later.
This week both my immediate neighbours and I have had our bins ignored. Three in a row! A call this week revealed we’re all down as not having put our bins out. We all actually put all three bins out, and the black and the green ones were emptied as usual, no trouble. Unfortunately, I’m usually out the house by the time they come with the lorries, so I can’t accost them to find out what they’re playing at…

I’ve emailed Pat Hollands at Lewisham, who is apparently in charge, and wait to see if we are graced with a collection next week.

That £60 at the start of the year was clearly NOT money well spent…

I haven’t had any problem with mine so it might just be an issue with the particular crew that collects yours.

As per Rachael, had no issues with mine.

No issues here so far. I’m on Honor Oak Road.

No issues here either. I’m quite enjoying not having to wrangle things into bags. They come very very early to collect it though, so if you are putting your bins out in the morning before you leave for work you’ve probably missed them. they come around 6am round my way. Of course you may leave for work earlier than that!

At present its only been used for grass cuttings but again here… no problem.

Pah! Looks like I may have to move house.

The bins are always put out the night before, so it’s not that, fran.

To update, the council contact has replied very promptly, saying she’s been in touch with the green waste people, and they’ve assured her the system will be running smoothly from now on. I have visions of her riding shotgun and berating any slacking bin men…

Here’s hoping.

I too find the brown bin SO much easier to deal with than the green bags,especially emptying the mower hopper.

@Edd - here’s hoping you get good service from now on.

I was super skeptical, but am super pleased to have the bin now. Before I would umm and ahh about mowing the lawn, thinking of the faff to dispose of the clippings. With the bin it becomes a no-brainer, which has made a surprisingly positive difference in my inclination towards mowing the lawn!

Silly question but are you putting your garden waste bin out on the correct day? Ours is collected on a different day to general waste and recycling.

Yes, definitely the right day, honest!

When I asked which days is the collection of garden waste I was told that
SE23 (Perry Vale, Forest Hill and Bellingham) are all collected on Wednesdays and Crofton park on Thursdays.

My bin was only not emptied when I forgot to put it our by the kerb. Other than that I am really pleased.

Just had an email from Lewisham pointing out the garden waste bin needs to be put right out on the street:

Where to put your bin
Please put your garden waste bin on the pavement (i.e. public highway). This is different from where you leave your other rubbish and recycling bins. Our bin men will only empty your bin if it is left on the pavement outside your property. If it’s left on your property we will assume that you don’t need a collection that week.

Well, the bin that was overlooked last Wednesday was apparently emptied this Tuesday, according to my husband (I’ve been away since Monday).

He emptied a bag of prunings into it on Tuesday evening, ready for the Wednesday collection. And they’re still there. In the brown bin, on the pavement outside our house.

It’s beginning to feel like some peculiar sort of inexplicable vendetta. Whom have I pissed off?!

I just checked my garden waste bin, and it still has grass clippings from a couple of weeks ago. All three of my bins are right at the boundary, and I’ve never had a problem with rubbish or recycling, but it looks like the garden collection men are enforcing the “if it’s not on the pavement it won’t be collected” rule. Sigh. Nothing is ever simple.

We had a note through the door to say if it’s not on the street, they wont take it. Learnt the hard way with a full bin that was right on the boundary but not on the pavement/roadside.

Otherwise, very happy with the ease of getting rid of garden waste! Will pay for itself come the Autumn fall.

Yep, has to be on the pavement. As it is not the same as the usual bin collections they have spotters in the cab. Bin not on the pavement, bin not spotted, bin not collected.

There’s two things I’m not thrilled by. One is the 6am start. I sleep through thunderstorms but I’m sure it must be the noise from these guys that wakes me up on Wednesdays.

The other thing is, should we really be putting obstacles on the pavement, especially at night? I can’t think of a single good reason why having the bins just inside one’s property isn’t good enough. The grey and green bin crews are perfectly happy with that.

My brown bin hasn’t been collected on a couple of occasions, but I couldn’t say for sure whether that’s because I failed the pavement test.

There are very good reasons why these collections are not the same as regular ones. Every household has a green and grey bin, so the crews know they have to stop at every property. Not everyone has a brown bin, and not everyone who has one wants it emptied every week. Each brown bin crew covers a larger area than the regular crews. It’s not practical for them to look inside the boundary of every property on the off chance there’s a brown bin to collect.

It’s really not that difficult to see it! It’s right at the bottom of the driveway, out of the way of passing people with prams or sight difficulties.

The grey and green bin crews usually send someone ahead to check bins, consolidate rubbish into one neighbour’s bin if there isn’t much in another, etc. I’m sure it’s not beyond the wit of the brown bin crews to do something similar.

Or at least not start at 6am!

I am sure they could check each house, at a price. Not sure why it is so hard to move one bin with wheels?

I agree it’s a pain. I have to put mine a bit further down the street as there’s a tree on one side of my gate and a lamp post on the other.

I’m assuming LB Lewisham did some fairly fine cost analysis and didn’t introduce this rule on a whim.

@Londondrz - indeed, it’s not difficult to move a bin with wheels. Which is why LB Lewishsm think it’s reasonable to ask us to do it. I have to move my bins from the side return to the front of the house every week so maybe it just doesn’t seem a lot of bother to me to push the brown bin out a few feet further.

For me it’s not the bother. I move the other two bins to the bottom of the drive. It’s the fact that I think it’s bonkers to have to put it on the pavement the night before.

Is it the fact that the rules are different that is bonkers, or having to put it out on the pavement? I honestly don’t see what the big deal is.

Well, both, really - but I don’t see why it - or any bin - has to be put out on the pavement the night before. I’m sure there’s a law of unintended consequences about to bite somebody on the bum.

I always thought you had to put all the bins out on the street. Everyone on my street does.

Here too, which is why I’ve been scratching my head over why the brown bins are an issue. On some of the side roads near me the bins are always out because there are steep front gardens with steps. As long as people are sensible about where they place them, it doesn’t seem to be a problem.

Andys you have a drive you posh git you, call a man servant to do it

You just can’t get the staff these days, Londondrz.

Our greenery bin was emptied today! Now to work out what we did differently to every other week…

I can understand why they want them out on the street, because brown bins are unlikely to need to be emptied every week, unlike the other bins. I didn’t put mine out this week as I haven’t put much in it. If it makes the service more cost effective not to be paying someone to peer into everyone’s brown bin then that’s a good thing surely?

Overall I am very pleased as it makes gardening much easier!

I am such a fan of this service! I actually thought we’d never use it but I was out in the garden at 10pm last night, hacking back a bush!

It’s funny, isn’t it, how much easier it is tipping stuff straight into the bin rather than piling it up to bag up later, or trying to poke stuff into the bags without them ripping, then dragging the bags out for collection. Shows how small tweaks do make a difference to behaviour!

I have had exactly the same problem. The only times when my bin has been collected have been after I complained (and so never on the right day). If I didn’t complain, no collection happened. But complaining online is quite tricky , as the facility for recording non-collection is restricted to brown and black bins. So I wrote and complained. The Council response was astonishing. Because I had the temerity to complain, my service was terminated. The Customer Service Manager (Environment) wrote: “As you are
unhappy with the service, I have arranged for your payment to be refunded in full and the bin to be collected within the next 7-10 days”. Then, to make sure I fully understand the inconvenience this will cause me: “I would also like to take this opportunity to remind you that garden waste is not permitted in either the domestic or recycling bins”. I replied :" I have not cancelled. I have made a complaint, which I hope you will address. I have not asked for a refund. I have paid for a service which I think I have a right to expect to be delivered." As no response came, I sent this again. Still no response. .I think it would be good to find out just what is happening. I will probably now make some FOI requests for information.

I have the same problem,so waited for the bin men and no the did not take mine even thou it was on the footpath,so dashed out and arsked why they just looked at me with blank faces,the emptied my bin a left in 10 yard down the road

What day do you have yours collected? I wonder if there is a ‘happy’ crew and a ‘surly’ crew? Ours id a Wednesday and i can’t fault the service.

I thought of this thread as i ran out this morning in my pjs to get my brown bin out on time. Were they all collected this morning?

Kemble Road was collected.

FYI you can report a missed garden waste bin collection using FixMyStreet.com or by calling Lewisham Enviro on 020 8314 9756.

Anyone else have a missed collection today? We’re in Devonshire Road.

When I reported it online at Lewisham’s website, I had this message:

"Failed to Send email, error message is An error occurred while communicating with the CRM server: Invalid e-mail address. For more information, contact your system administrator.
Invalid e-mail address. For more information, contact your system administrator.

Sorry! We cant send you an email acknowledgement.

Please click 'continue’"

http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/wasterecycle/Garden-waste-collections/Pages/Report-a-problem-with-your-garden-waste-bin.aspx

I don’t think my email address is invalid. I have used it for 20 years and apart from minor problems it works. I repeated the exercise in case I had mis-typed my email address. Same error message.

I suggest that you contact the webmaster about this:
http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/contact-us/Pages/contact.aspx?directoryid=22

Report it via Fix My Street. That’s the new system.

Try to pay for parking online. I did point out to Maja Hilton their website was a bit iffy but not sure how much she can do. MAy be worth calling envirocall.

Better be working soon. Just renewed the annual fee.

Has the Council announced that they want us to channel communications to them via a third party? Why can’t we contact them directly?

The last time I had a missing collection, the Lewisham website directed me to Fix My Street. I see they’ve changed that to their own form, I don’t know when that change was made.

I did speak with a polite young man at Envirocall this morning. (Is Envirocall a private contractor?)

He does not know whether my bin will be emptied before next week’s collection. He does not have access to online reports of missing collections, so cannot tell me if my online report was received or not. He did not know which office receives these reports.

Our collection missed again this morning.

Did you check the Council website? Due to the bank holiday ours was a day later.

But bang on time at 06.15.

Yes, it’s always a day later after the holiday. The other two bins have been emptied.

Terence - how was this resolved?

Has now been collected. Has never been this late, but All’s Well …

Does anyone have any idea how i can get in touch with a human to ask when we’ll be getting our garden waste bin? I paid for it over a month ago no sign of it anytime soon.

So far i have tried…

1. Lewisham council website: http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/wasterecycle/Garden-waste-collections/Pages/Report-a-missed-garden-waste-bin-collection.aspx Just kept coming up with error messages and no confirmation of it getting through to the right dept.
2. Fix My Street
3. Phoning 0208 3149756 (average waiting time is 53 minutes on hold - i’m currently number 2 in the queue and have been for 25 minutes )
4. Asking https://twitter.com/EnviroLewisham
5. Filled in a questionnaire sent from customerfeedback@lewisham.gov.uk
6. Sent a seperate email to customerfeedback@lewisham.gov.uk

Only feedback i have got is this from fix my street and then they marked it as no further action

Lewisham Garden Waste Bins are being delivered with in 21 Working days of the order being place. The Bin could well arrive sooner

Posted anonymously at 13:31, Thursday 4 May 2017, marked as no further action

From what i can see from others comments here, even if by a miracle the bin actually arrives, i shouldn’t be expecting much in terms of it being collected each week.

Any ideas who Lewisham sub contracted this service to? Envirocall has been mentioned.

On a side note i think the ‘do it online’ section of the website is not working in the way they think it is.

I could kinda understand it if it was a free service. Any tips appreciated.

Try Callpoint - 020 8314 7171

I got through straight away when I last called (admittedly, March) but the person was really helpful

Nice one - cheers!

Also, don’t take the comments here as an indication of widespread problems with the garden waste bins. This is only a handful of issues out of hundreds (thousands?) of users, and you hear about things when they are going wrong, not when they are going right!

The most responsive contact for the Lewisham is their Enviroment Dept on Twitter: @EnviroLewisham

Hey - I understand what you’re saying however it would seem the issues are relatively widespread. I’m not basing this just on the comments on this forum. My neighbours all had issues - One had to wait almost 4 months just to receive the bin https://www.fixmystreet.com/report/876758 Friends in other areas of FH, HO have had issues and there’s a number of reports on fix my street all over Lewisham about missed collections and long waiting times for the bins.

If hundreds of people are paying for a service then resources should be available to make sure its a functional service.

Hopefully i’ll hear back from someone soon and get on with the collections.

We have had our bin for the 2nd year now. The on-line form didn’t work back then, but when I rang it all got sorted.
I think they are probably inundated now with requests! They do empty it though on the due date if you put it on the kerbside. So it is worth persevering, even though it’s frustrating. I generally try & ring as soon as the phone lines are open if you can, be the first to harass them ha ha!

I renewed online by PayPal which wasn’t wise as they have to do a manual cross check of payments, names and addresses (and they only do it once a week…ish).

Call to buy or renew if you can get through.

At least you know your payment is secure though if it’s any consolation. The problems you are having are typical of all Councils aren’t they? Hope you get it all sorted very soon.

ordered and paid for our new brown bin using Lewisham online order process 30 May, it arrived 8 June, so looks as if service is pretty good at the moment.