The usual holiday experience

IT SEEMS North Somerset Council is not interested in holding its contractors to their contracts. A Biffa spokesman says they have received just a handful of complaints related to incorrect return of recycling boxes. I have been asking North Somerset Council for years to tell Biffa to clean up its act but my requests have obviously not been passed on. If the Biffa spokesman troubled to leave his office and see the mess on our streets he would perhaps learn something. I have just had the usual holiday experience. The black bags were collected a day late. Everyone is nervous that leaving them within the curtilage of their property as per the contract will lead to their not being collected and so they were left on the public footway. They were split open and the bins overturned during the night. The collectors simply left the spilled rubbish where it was. So as not to have jars used to break car windows as they have been in the past, I waited until the collectors arrived before putting out my green box. Although they saw me doing this, they simply did not empty it. So the festive season was celebrated with a full green box and rubbish all over the road. Walking to my office, I had to avoid the green boxes that had been emptied and left on the public footway. I did not see any empty ones within the curtilage of anyone's property, just full ones that should have been collected. I think it is appalling that North Somerset Council allows Biffa to cause obstructions to be left on the footway on three different days in a single week. They could cause severe problems for the visually impaired and those with mobility problems, pushchairs or wheelchairs. But the season of goodwill does not seem to matter to North Somerset Council.CLLR MIKE KELLAWAY-MARRIOTTCentral WardWeston Town Council