Councillor Mike Prendergast comments on Green Bin Collections

Many residents across Southport were left disappointed last week when the expected garden waste collection never arrived. Councillor Mike Prendergast commented, "The contract for the garden waste collection covers 39 collection over the year between 1st March until 30th November. This normally takes the service up until the last Monday in November.

This year though, because of the way the calendar has fallen, the 39th collection fell on 22nd November. Sefton Council had provided assurances in October that residents would be made aware of this., this clearly didn't happen.

It's disappointing to say the least that nobody spotted that the final collection date would be different to previous years, it's not as if it came as a surprise and residents should have been told at the start of the year. The failure to properly inform residents has caused a lot of people to end up with a green wheelie bin full of garden waste that they are now going to have to deal with themselves or keep until the service resumes next year, all that needed to happen was for a sticker to be put on the green wheelie bins when they were collected earlier in the year to let residents know of the slightly unusual final collection date.

You can't seriously expect local residents to regularly check Sefton Council's website for these kind of notices. I would hope that Sefton Council now take some action to help local residents get rid of their garden waste."