Bulk rubbish uplifts in Lerwick

[JustMe]

I have just discovered that the council has decided to cut the bulk rubbish uplift for Lerwick. Now this seems short sighted to me and will doubtless lead to some people depositing assorted junk in the big metal bins used for domestic waste in parts of the town while others will just dump things in odd corners under cover of darkness.

 

It is also unfair in that the rural areas are going to keep their community skips. Am told this is because it is harder for them to get to the main refuse dump in Lerwick. Frankly I think this is discriminatory and if the service is provided for some it should be provided for all.

 

Now doubtless someone will say that I can easily drive to the dump. Well perhaps I could if I had a vehicle but meanwhile I do not have a vehicle and have no friends with suitable vehicles living close to me.

[zebedee]

It's not discriminatory at all. You already have the facility in the form of the dump near you. Do you think the community skips go door to door? We in the country still need to transport our bulk rubbish to the skip somehow, and for many it will be further than your trip to the dump.

[JustMe]

Well my accusation of this being "discriminatory" is based on knowing where skips get placed in Scalloway and they are much closer to where the bulk of people live than the dump is to most people in Lerwick. Have to admit I do not know about other areas.

[zebedee]

And if you want to discuss discriminatory, what about kerbside recycling? Absolutely none in the country.

[Colin]

Skips in Scalloway have been reduced by 33% this year. Furthermore, they are always placed where most people cannot get at them without a suitable vehicle.

Carrying bulky rubbish is not an option for most.

[JustMe]

And if you want to discuss discriminatory, what about kerbside recycling? Absolutely none in the country.

Absolutely agree and I think the council ought to be thinking in terms of vehicles that can collect normal trash and recycling at the same time.

[jaydee67]

On the subject of kerbside recycling, I was told by the guy promoting waste reduction at the agricultural shows last year if I wanted better recycling facilities I would have to move to town. Not impressed!

[smeghead]

The only way that the council is going to back track on any of these cuts is if the people of shetland start complaining to thier local councillor, as its the councillors who decided on what got cut, not the departments.

 

As for the kerbside recycling, I think the council would be better with recycling points throughout the town + countryside. Then they'd just need to go round the recycling points, instead of everyones doorstep.

 

After all, most folk go past thier local shop / community skip / council depots at some point during the week, why not site these facilities there.

[JustMe]

As for the kerbside recycling, I think the council would be better with recycling points throughout the town + countryside. Then they'd just need to go round the recycling points, instead of everyone's doorstep.

 

After all, most folk go past their local shop / community skip / council depots at some point during the week, why not site these facilities there.

To be fair to the council and although I agree that more recycling points would help I suspect that a lot of metal, glass and plastic that would otherwise be going into black bags and the incinerator is being collected for recycling with the kerbside collections.

 

I am convinced that recycling is good and have taken bottles to bottle-banks even without a car for some years but I have to admit that the batteries I have collected for recycling kind of sit under the sink and never get to a recycling point simply because they are not collected.

[viking74]

I agree!! lets start placing da skips fur scalloway...at da tap o da scord say? wtf wir dae tinkin ta set da skips near residental areas! tut-tut, onywy i duna hae a car tow so i hae ta ask fok fur help du kaens,

i also fin it discrimatory dat fok hae tae traavil intae da toon joost ta git fuel!!

 

an as fur tescos! fok hae tae traavil aa da wy intae da toon joost tae git cheap ayrrants!

 

an wi scallowa skool shuttin i tink dats annidir discrimanation haen ta bus pupils tro an fro whin dir a perfectly good skool in scallowa!...need i gae on.

 

i du agree dat lerook needs tae hae bulk collection an it shoodna be cut, every communty throo'oot shaetlan desrves da sam. even if its at a reduced rate say. dis cooncillors really need ta sit doon an look at da chaos dat dir makin...wis naebody waetchin as da cooncil hoos o cards wis bein built? an noo hits a crashin doon aroond wir lugs! an we da peasants hae ta suffer!

 

 

'dis isna da lerook isles dis is da shetland isles....or is it?'

[JustMe]

This is an open message to J A Stewart, Shetlinker and member of Lerwick Community Council. Were you consulted about the withdrawal of the bulk uplift service?. Do you not consider that with more people living in flats in Lerwick than in the rural areas and, I would guess, less cars per head of population than rural areas the service was, at least, equally as valuable as the rural community skips service and should not have been withdrawn?. Are you satisfied that the withdrawal of this service will not simply lead to "fly tipping" that will end up costing the council more than the bulk uplift cost when they end up having to clear up the mess on an ad-hoc basis?.

 

Indeed are you convinced that this cut will give any real saving anyway?. Are there going to be redundancies in the cleansing department equal to however many man hours the bulk uplift took or are the savings simply based on some notional costing plus the cost of the fuel saved (which then needs to be offset against the cost of ad-hoc collections of fly tipped rubbish)?.

 

To those rural people who objected to my calling this discriminatory I am sorry and I meant no offence but I would like to point out that the distance from most of Lerwick to the Rova Head is greater than the distance many people have to convey their bruck to a rural skip and that a lot of Lerwick people living in flats do not have anywhere suitable to store bruck and even the six months between bulk uplifts was a problem for many.

 

I am sure JAS and others will correct me if I am wrong in this but I am sure that if I, as a non car owner, hire a man with a van to take my bruck to Rova Head my bruck then becomes "trade waste" and the man with a van will be charged for dumping it and of course will pass that charge onto me. Now that is discriminatory in that it discriminates against people who do not have their own transport.

[MuckleJoannie]

There are recycling points throughout Shetland for those who are able to access them

 

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=112870620432378779321.0004721d2660a2a2f9cb6&z=7

[JustMe]

I have had a reply from JAS giving a perfectly valid reason why he will not reply to my open letter. I accept this and now want to ask if other members of the Lerwick Community Council would care to reply openly to my open letter instead.

[Ghostrider]

Okay, let me see if I've gotten this straight. The town have a "bulky refuse" uplift service....from that I take it that folk in town either dunk their knackered sofa, TV or whatever on the kerb on a set day, and it magically vanishes, or they call a number, arrange a day, and same result. But now the availability of this service is being curtailed. Yes? And that's discriminatory compared to the rural skips service?

 

Well, I would agree, but for the facts, as already said, that rural skips are almost never sited within carrying distance of more than one or two houses, and that in the majority of locations (around here at least) the skip is filled to overflowing by those close enough to it to be able to see it from their house, who get in there and get rid of their rubbish before someone a little further away has had time to be aware an empty has turned up.

 

I'd say folk in town are in a state of positive discrimination compared to those in rural areas, as at least when the set day does finally arrive, your trash will go. In rural areas its quite the thing to drive by a very recently arrived skip with plenty of room in it, return an hour or two later with your junk to put in it and find that during the time it took you to load up your's and get there one or two others had beat you to it, and there's no room left for your's. Then, you can either take all your junk home again, unload and re-store it, and hope you get there a bit quicker the next time a skip comes severla weeks later, or if you happen to known the rota for the skips you can choose to either take a drive of several miles to see if the others put out at the same time as your one of choice still have any room left (no doubt much to the consternation and cursing of residents local to those skips), in which you may or may not be lucky. If you're not you are left with two choices, fly tipping, or taking it back home, unloading, re-storing and hoping you get in while some room is left next time.

 

To my understanding, that leaves the town, under the reduced service, possibly having to store their bulky trash longer than has been necessary in the past, but at least when the opportunity arrives, it will definitely go. Rural areas have never had the security when bulky items will be able to go, its always been the luck of the draw, you town folk are still well ahead.

[shetlandpeat]

Many places you have to get rid of your own rubbish and many places will take away the replaces item, Especially bulky items that fall under WEEE.

The council do offer a bulky collection, but you have to pay. Landfill now costs about 100 pounds a tonne plus transport.

They supply skips in some estates, but more to encourage folks to clear their gardens.

There will always be folk who will take full advantage, there is nothing in place for them to stop them.

It is against the law to fly-tip. It should be more frowned upon there because of the closeness to nature and the need to Sustain the environment. Folk are happy to pay the extra levy charged to clear fly-tipping so as not to do their civil duty and be labeled negatively by those caught breaking the law.