An initiative to offer free bulky waste collections to Blackburn with Darwen’s 150,000 residents has become the ‘victim of its own success’, a council report has admitted.
For many years, residents had paid to have their bulky household items removed by the council, but in April of this year, councillors approved a new system where everyone is entitled to one free collection every year.
Using the authority’s normal points-based system, anyone can have up to 100 points of waste removed for £34, which would equate to roughly a mattress, some drawers, a sofa, an old radiator, and a bag of waste.
But the uptake on this new free system, aimed at reducing costly fly-tipping, has been so great that the council is making further investments into the scheme, to ensure all collections take place within a month and that all residents know to take advantage of it.
Since the free scheme’s introduction in April, the number of bulky waste collections has almost trebled with more than 500 requests for pick-ups in June alone.
The council has warned that the increase in demand is putting pressure on its customer contact centre, because residents currently have to book free collections by telephone due to limitations in the existing IT system.
The report said the volume of requests is causing delays in responding to other enquiries and increasing workloads for staff.
Presenting the report to Blackburn with Darwen’s executive board on Thursday, the member for Environment and Communities, Cllr Jim Casey said: “As you can see from the report, we are kind of the victim of our own success.
“This is about altering the service to try and reduce the pick-up times and also making it easier for people to use the service.”
To resolve this issue and improve the free collection service, the executive board approved a funding package of £189,000 for additional employees and the creation of a fully online self-service booking system developed by software provider Abavus.
The council estimates the new system will take around a month to develop, test and launch.
A report by Cllr Casey said officers expect demand to rise even further once residents can book collections online.
The additional resources, including extra collection staff and call centre workers, are intended to reduce waiting times between requests being made and pick-ups taking place.
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A breakdown of these costs: £52,600 for two temporary collection teams over three months, £52,600 for an additional collection team for the rest of the financial year, £78,750 for three temporary customer contact centre staff, and £5,020 for the development of the new online booking system.
The report also revealed a tension between Lancashire’s 15 separate councils, after many had sought to improve their food waste collection services. This has resulted in a shortage of full-time HGV drivers in the county.
Because of this, Blackburn with Darwen plans to use agency drivers initially while it recruits permanent staff.
Reflecting on the first five months of the free service, council leader Cllr Phil Riley said: “We have been genuinely astonished at the success of this scheme, there appears to be a bottomless pit of stuff in people’s lockers and lofts, or wherever it is.
“We didn’t have any expectation that it would turn out like this, as Jim said, we really have been the victims of our own success here.”
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