Ridgegrove waste - a solution is on the way

This morning I had a very positive meeting with officers from Cornwall Council's waste department, environmental health officers, the local housing officer and managers from Cory, the new waste contractors across Cornwall. The aim was to sort out a solution to the problems being faced by residents of Ridgegrove where communal bin collections were downgraded to once a week leading to rubbish strewn across the estate and the appearance of rats.

Following my previous intervention, Cory and the council have re-introduced collections twice per week until a long-term solution can be found. Many thanks to them for this.

We walked around the estate looking at the possible solutions. One option would be to revert to the previous service on a long term basis. However, this often leads to fly-tipping, inappropriate waste being put out for collection and almost no recycling.

Instead, the idea being proposed is to reintroduce a doorstep collection for black bag rubbish and recycling across the estate. This will require a lot of work by both the council and Cory to make sure that each house has a suitable and accessible place to put their rubbish out, to communicate this and to make sure Cory pick it up. But the willingness from everyone was there to make it happen and I think this is the best long-term solution.

It won't happen straightaway - the new service needs to bed down in other areas first and the new collections rounds need to be designed. But in a couple of months or so there will be a changeover with residents told where their new collection point is and the old communal bins taken out - and the twice a week collections will continue until then.

Many thanks to Cory and to everyone involved at the council for coming to today's meeting with a positive attitude and I hope that the new waste regime will bring a positive outcome for the people of Ridgegrove.

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