Bulk rubbish uplifts in Lerwick

[JustMe]

from the SIC website

If you have any bulky items, please take them to the Gremista Waste Management Facility and Recycling Centre in Lerwick, where they can be disposed of free of charge.

Oh it is that easy is it?. Except like lots of other Lerwick residents I do not have any sort of vehicle and if I hire a man with a van to transport my bruck to the site I understand it then is regarded as trade waste and the man will have to pay to dump it. A cost that will be passed onto me.

[zebedee]

from the SIC website

If you have any bulky items, please take them to the Gremista Waste Management Facility and Recycling Centre in Lerwick, where they can be disposed of free of charge.

Oh it is that easy is it?. Except like lots of other Lerwick residents I do not have any sort of vehicle and if I hire a man with a van to transport my bruck to the site I understand it then is regarded as trade waste and the man will have to pay to dump it. A cost that will be passed onto me.

 

Thats not true. I have just phoned them to clarify this point, as it is one that you have made twice with nothing to back it up. They said if you hired someone to take it away it would still be classified as household waste and be disposed of free of charge.

[JustMe]

from the SIC website

If you have any bulky items, please take them to the Gremista Waste Management Facility and Recycling Centre in Lerwick, where they can be disposed of free of charge.

Oh it is that easy is it?. Except like lots of other Lerwick residents I do not have any sort of vehicle and if I hire a man with a van to transport my bruck to the site I understand it then is regarded as trade waste and the man will have to pay to dump it. A cost that will be passed onto me.

 

Thats not true. I have just phoned them to clarify this point, as it is one that you have made twice with nothing to back it up. They said if you hired someone to take it away it would still be classified as household waste and be disposed of free of charge.

Well that is certainly what happens in other areas and is what I have been told happens here. If not then I am glad that some common sense prevails.

[zebedee]

All it took was a 30 second phone call, feel free to phone them yourself to check.

[JustMe]

All it took was a 30 second phone call, feel free to phone them yourself to check.

No, I take your word for it. Still think it is a bad decision made by someone looking to save a few pennies and I am convinced that it will lead to rubbish dumped all around town by people without access to transport and I do intend to try raising this with both my councillors, the Community Council and anyone else I can think of.

[JustMe]

So being convinced this is a bad move I have sent a letter to the Lerwick Community Council about this and have sent copies to my Councillors. Await developments but meantime I do know of other Lerwick residents who are stuck with rubbish they cannot now dispose of without having to hire someone to take it away........at a price.

 

Copy of my letter is here:-

 

 

Dear Sir/Madam, I wish to draw the community council's attention to the sudden withdrawal of the Bulk Rubbish Uplift from Lerwick. This move will cause great inconvenience to a lot of Lerwick residents without their own transport and indeed may backfire as a money saving scheme since I can well imagine that some people will simply take anything big to the nearest bit of waste ground and abandon it or indeed will just abandon it on a street corner. This will surely cost the council more as it will have to respond to complaints about rubbish on a regular basis.

 

I also wonder exactly how much dropping the scheme will really save. I presume it takes 2 men one week for each bulk uplift making an annual total of 150 man hours per annum plus vehicle costs. While I guess the vehicle cost savings are genuine I wonder if there really will be a drop of 150 hours in the wage bill or will the men simply do something else so any saving will theoretically be only on paper. Meanwhile I notice that the relatively small population on Bressay retains a service of 49 skips this year.

 

Correspondence on Shetlink leads me to believe that the Community Council was not consulted about this. Why?..........because they might have objected?.

Regards

[THE GREYSUIT]

The residents of Lerwick have been spoiled for years with free bulky uplift from the door whilst rural folk have had to pay for the service, yes we get community skips but I usually have to drive for miles to find an empty one, stop your complaining and do something for yourselves, at least you know its only a two mile drive and the skips always available when you get there, more than I ever do.

[GND Records]

When is the next large bulk collection or have they stopped ?.

[JustMe]

At the moment it is shown as stopped for this year but I think unless enough Lerwick people complain it will be forever. And to those country dwellers who think Lerwick get treated better than they do I would like to remind you that, in my opinion, less Lerwick residents have any sort of vehicle to drive to the Lerwick skips, we have probably less space to store bulky items that most rural folk and, on balance, our homes are in a higher band for council tax than rural homes of an equivalent size.

 

But that said I am flitting. Off to the country and I guess I could move any bulky items I wanted to get rid of to the local skip on a skateboard........if I could borrow one. A skateboard that is not a skip.

 

Of course there is an alternative way to equality. Cut out the rural skips and have the bulk uplift twice a year everywhere.

[shetlandpeat]

I think you should contribute something, especially as taxes are rising. Land fill is not really the way forward, you only have to look at the tip at the Ness of Sound. According to GOV we should all pay, I think it should be enforced with vigor, generally those with the most waste the most.

 

Councils are already charged £48 for every tonne of rubbish they throw into landfill and this amount is due to increase by £8 each year to £72 per tonne in 2013. In last week’s Budget, Alistair Darling announced plans to increase landfill tax for a further year so that in 2014, councils will be paying £80 for every tonne of rubbish they throw in the ground.

 

I don't think the new GOV are gonna stop this, especially as they were being close to being fined for air pollution.

 

The City of London has been found to be one of the most polluted places in Europe after monitoring equipment recorded dangerous levels of minute particles for the 36th time this year. Under EU rules, Britain is allowed no more than 35 "bad air" days in the whole year, and now faces court cases and unlimited fines by Europe.

that was last year.

[oddsandends]

let me know what you want to get rid of and I will give a price for dumping it. TEXT 07769173940

[icepick239]

let me know what you want to get rid of and I will give a price for dumping it. TEXT 07769173940

Quite a few Councillors would be desirable, but I fear the cost would be far too high..

[sabre13]

Not everybody in the country thinks lerwick dwellers are better of,the nearest skip site to me is 1 mile away,eight people where i live have disabilaties in one form or the other and cant drive.The skip is full within four hours,have no ways or means to get items there,even though suggested they wont put a skip here ( for some unknown reason) and the last skip that was here was eight years ago.Many more people are giving up using cars and using buses,the buses are jammned solid because of fuel prices going through the roof and even people who have a car dont have trailers so how are you meant to get rid of bulky items? i will tell you,you have to either hire a skip (cost of the skip then how much it is per tonne) or hire the van from moving on project £95 from here to the town dump.Try pushing a spring knackered armchair 1 mile and then hauling it into the skip for some poor sod that cant pay that and if there was a bulk uplift twice a year there would be a phenomenal amount if a skip gets filled in four hours

[JustMe]

Having been irritated by the sudden withdrawal of the bulk uplift service in Lerwick I moved to the country and agree with Sabre 13 that the rural skips are not a great solution either. I have a skip a bit less than a mile away but so far it has remained full and anyway I cannot carry anything I could not just put out in a black bag over that distance so am no better off than I was in Lerwick.

[MDB]

We have a regular skip in our village, it's about 2 miles from my house but I am fortunate to own a trailer.

 

However the village is mainly elderly people who can't get to the skip so depend on others to take things there for them, which we gladly do. This is not a problem for me or my husband but it's so damn annoying when you have gathered up enough from round about to dump in the skip and when you get there someone has filled it up with fencing or other industrial rubbish !

 

These skips are for the community not for business's, take your stuff to the dump and pay for it like you should !

 

If I didn't have a car or a trailer then I would be totally stuck for getting rid of stuff, a local collection would be nice, but how often would it happen in a rural village,,,, never !