What Do You Think Of It So Far?

Here in Bournemouth, everything is lovely. Not a piece of litter or a barker's nest to be seen. However, my spies back there in the tip of Kent are reporting a different story!

It's been a month since Thanet Duffer Central introduced their new rubbish regime, and things don't appear to be getting any better. Reader John writes:

I live in a back street mews where we have the large, wheeled, communal, dumpster-type bins for general rubbish, food waste and recycling. Until recently they had not been emptied since October. There were maggots in the food waste bin, which stank to high heaven. TDC did come and empty them after I phoned them, but when I spoke to one of their officials on the general topic of the new recycling system, and the possibility that not everyone was putting the correct rubbish in the correct communal bins, he said that if they discovered any rubbish in the wrong bins they would fine every property in the street. Unbelievable.

Not only that, but the seagull-proof sacks are just being thrown around by the bin men without any due care and attention, the result being that household waste is littering the entire street.

Well John, it seems from what you say that the island is reverting back to the bad old days of 2007 - where my photo's from in fact. Even the Isle of Thanet Gazunder has latched onto the rubbish state of affairs, reporting that hideous great rats have been spotted roaming the streets of Cliftonville (click here for the full story).

I dunno, it seems that for every step TDC take forward, they take eleven steps back! So, in the spirit of Back To The Future, here's a little reminder of a fone jacking I performed on them half a decade ago, during their 'Drop It And Cop It' campaign. Enjoy!

Rubbish Rubbish Collection Collection

With our lovely council's new, 'improved' system of bin collection just around the corner, my spies tell me that they're already struggling to cope with two wheelie bins per household, let alone the 4,583 bins we'll each have come November!

A reader from the grimy north of the island writes:

I want to know what happened to our bin men this morning. Everyone's bins were mixed up, are you seriously telling me a man can't take a wheelie bin from a property, empty it, and then return it to where he got it?!!!! Neighbours, including a lady pregnant with twins, have been out trying to find their own bins up and down the street. Apparently there are wide bins and skinny bins - who knew!?! I now possess a skinny one which wasn't mine before they came, but I haven't been able to get out and scour the neighbourhood for a wide-that-I-thought-was-standard-size bin!!!! HMPH!

Well that doesn't really bode well for next month, does it? Let's hope the £2,482,245 The Duffers have spent on a fleet of 15 new bin lorries proves worth it!!

Better Get A Bucket And Spade

Reader Bill from Ramsgate writes:

On my regular walk along the seafront yesterday morning, I saw the following sights of neglect by our beloved council...

A bin overflowing before the bucket and spade run on the West Cliff...

The Western Undercliff. Surely these lorries, which are always parked here, should be moved on as they are illegally parked?

But hey, I saw the Councillors Kirby walking along the clifftop path so I assume they have reported both of these and they will get resolved asap...

The Eastcliff Bandstand. Don't TDC employ additional seasonal bin emptiers to ensure our town is 'spick and span' for the summer?...

The Blue Flag on Ramsgate Main Sands. Reading this sign you'd think it was up...

It's not anywhere to been seen.....

Finally, the bin-mountain down at the port...

At least that's shrinking. Now fewer households are only 20 years behind other Kent councils in getting wheelie bins.

Three jeers for TDC!

East Of The Wantsum

For what it is worth, here is this week's East of the Wantsum. Personally I think the blow to Dickie's helmeted head has addled his brain and he'll never be the same again. But then what do I know, I am not a brain surgeon.

By some sort of perverse, crappy magic, as I was walking to the shop on Bellevue Road to pick up this week's Thanet Gazette, I came across some more old rubbish:




This situation has persisted for years in this part of Ramsgate's East Cliff. The council appears to be incapable of doing anything about it. So maybe Dickie is right after all. Hey-diddle-diddle. My friend Beth is down from London for the weekend tonight and we're out on the razz. So what do I care? Sxx.

Thanet Council Should Get The Sack

By that I mean the 'Reusable Seagull Proof Refuse Sack', silly! My friend Stacey in Totnes sent me this photo of hers and it really seems like a good way of avoiding all the mess on the streets that the seagulls peck out from the black bin bags on bin day.

I know the residents of Augusta Road here in Ramsgate have petitioned the council for them, as the council says theirs is one of the roads that are 'unsuitable' for wheelie bins. For 'unsuitable' read 'can't be bothered' if you ask me, but anything that can stop the area looking like a third world country most of the week has got to be worth considering hasn't it? Sxx.

Thanet Council Trashed On BBC News

Lucky I'm WFH today - I caught this story on BBC South East Toady's lunchtime news. Apparently Thanet Council has been caught sending people's recycled trash (the stuff in the blue bags) off to the landfill rather than recycling it lol!

Click here to watch trash story on BBC South East Today
Click here to watch viewer's hidden camera video on Facebook

Sxx

Rubbish News

Wheelie Good News!

Hurrah! The wallahs at the council are at long last going to deploy their massive arsenal of wheelie bins down at the port! 3,000 properties across the isle, including Thanet's premier town Ramsgate, will be on the scheme by the end of October. As the Daily Mail would say: It's A Victory For Common Sense! Er, or maybe not, as they're currently running a mad bonkers campaign against wheelie bins actually.

Wasn't it only last week that Our Sandy was telling us there was no money for the extra wheelie bin rounds, and that we should all go out and buy dustbins? It seems my campaign to get the duffers to see sense has come to fruitation (©2000 Kevin Keegan)!!! So forgive a slight indulgence, but Olé Olé Olé Olé, Olé, Olé. Olé Olé Olé Olé, Olé, Olé!!!!!

Seriously chums, I've also noticed the grimy back streets behind Ramsgate front are no longer quite so, er, grimy. Could it be our new teeny-tiny council has swung into action? Or could the Cecil Squarians finally have noticed there are more places in Thanet than Margate? Who knows, but whatever the reason, and whoever's responsible, well done and keep up the good work!

Gazunder wheels out wheelie story
Comment and opinion from the north side's Chippy Tone

Wheelie Bad News

With our beloved duffers spending all our hard-earned council tax on events for Margate (which only benefit burger van owners from Clacton), it's no surprise that they can't afford to introduce wheelie bins in areas like central Ramsgate which desperately need them. They've stockpiled hundreds of the things down at the port, but say they can't be deployed as they're needed as 'replacements'. Well, here's a picture of the council's wheelie bin arsenal in February:

And here's another that was taken this weekend:

Now, I really haven't got the time to count them all, but from a quick glance I'd say that very few, if any, have been sent out as 'replacements'. In fact it's probably fair to say that nobody from the council has been down there in the past five months, as the ones that had been blown or kicked over in February still appear to be on their sides.

So what is the truth of Thanet Council's wheelie bin collection? Cynics might say that someone, somewhere cocked up and ordered way too many of the things for the number of bin rounds that are equipped to handle them, so they've just piled them up on a spare bit of council-owned land. I, on the other hand, prefer to put a much more sympathetic slant on it and would merely argue that they're a bunch on incompetent twats.

Bin Laden With Maggots

As you can imagine, I get literally thousands of emails a day here in the ops room at the old cliff top mansion. Here are a couple that recently slipped through the proverbial, both on the hot (and smelly) topic of our incompetent council's inability to run an effective rubbish collection service.

First off, reader Steve:

The council collects wheelie bins fortnightly and in this heat you get maggots crawling out of 'em like happened to me the other week. It's not pleasant at all, and if you go on holiday and haven't planned it round the wheelie bin day, the bin could be there for four weeks. OMG!

Hmmm. Planning your hols around Thanet Council's rubbish rubbish collection eh? But you're lucky, Steve, at least you have a wheelie bin! A different but identically named reader from Ramsgate writes:

I just read your 'Load of Rubbish' entry. I could not agree more. I live on the West Cliff and we do not have wheelie bins. Every night when I walk my dog on the promenade I look down and see the thousands of wheelie bins down in the port that are getting blown over and broken. I contacted TDC about when I could expect to receive my wheelie bins and I was told that there was no future plan to provide them to my street. They then told me the ones that are down in the port are replacement wheelie bins.

I explained to them many of the people on my street put their rubbish out the night before. The animals get into them and make a mess on the sidewalks and no one ever cleans it up. Providing wheelie bins on our street would help stop the rubbish mess made by the animals, cut down on the nearly nonexistent road sweeping, and would help keep Thanet beautiful. Of course these words fell on deaf ears.

These mindless idiots that we have appointed to help make our island run better cannot see the forest for the trees. I am open to suggestions on how we can make them see the light. In the mean time I think the residents of Ramsgate can start by putting out their rubbish the morning of pick up. If this is not possible then each of us should take enough pride in where they live to clean up the rubbish mess made by the animals in front of our own homes instead of waiting for the nonexistent road sweepers to clean it up.

Fair point, Steve 2. But why exactly are the council storing thousands of 'replacement' wheelie bins down at the port, when there are urban areas that desperately need them? Answers on the usual electronic postcard, please.

Sandy Talks Out Of His Binhole

Our beloved leader Sandy Beach is spouting off about the deplorable state of our streets in today's Isle of Thanet Gazunder. Not that in his blinkered, cosy little wall-to-wall-carpeted world he could possibly imagine anything's wrong. No. Not our Sandy.

Following last week's front page headline 'Rubbish Ghettos', Sandy says: 'I thought it was one of the most negative and inaccurate (headlines) I have ever read'. The Tory Commissar then dons his rose-tinted D&Gs and spouts forth about how everything 'looked great' when he toured the isle with Gazunder reporter Saul Leese this week. Really Sandy? Everything 'looks great' does it?

Well tell that to the frail little old ladies who I witnessed trying to negotiate the landfill of crap that is Augusta Road, while I was on my way to buy this week's paper. One of them, sporting (if that's the right word) a zimmer frame, was discussing with her friend how best to get past the mountain of dirty nappies, Stella cans and food waste that was spewed all over the pavement. Evidently they were on their way from the sheltered flats on the corner of Wellington Crescent and Disgusta Road into town to do some shopping. Eventually they gingerly stepped into the road where they were narrowly missed by a car. I could publish a picture of the mess, but to be honest it would be the same as the one I published more than two years ago. Since when you've done cock-all about the problem, presumably because there are no Tory votes in this area.

So, Sandy, instead of blaming the seagulls, or the residents who pay your ludicrous expenses, why not look at your administration and see where it is failing? There are thousands of wheelie bins lying idle down at the port. People are quoted in this week's paper as saying they'd even pay for wheelie bins. And if some areas aren't suitable for wheelies, then introduce continental style communal bins at the end of each street. If not, perhaps you could give us one good reason why we shouldn't bag you up and put you out for the birds!

Council's Load Of Rubbish

Reader Ernie from Newington writes:

Hello. On Wednesday after leaving the doctors in Dumpton Park Drive I thought it would be nice to walk down to the sea front via Bellevue Rd. As I got to Arklow Square the druggies were waiting for their supplier to arrive (nothing new there), it was then that I noticed the mess that was strewn across the road. Almost without exception every bin bag had been SEAGULLED.

When I then looked along Augusta Road it was just the same. Good job the B&Bs have gone. I had to return to the doc's at tea time, got off the bus in Plains of Waterloo. Yes the bin bags had gone but the CRAP was still all over the road and pavements. I live on the Newington Estate and the road sweepers follow the bin men. Yes we do have wheelie bins but the spillage is cleaned up.

I thought you would like to know that us from up here in the 'jungle' do notice things, and I did call TDC. And I like to read your blog. Regards, Ernie.

Well Ernie, I can vouch for the fact that the East Cliff is looking decidedly grimy these days, following the decision by numb-nuts at the council to withdraw weekly sweeping, and to refuse wheelie bins for the refuse. You might like to know, however, that not all the B&Bs have gone. In fact the Glendevon in Truro Road is rated the best B&B on the island according to TripAdvisor! Quite what visitors make of the soiled nappies and crushed Stella cans lining the street, heaven knows.

As an illustration of just how crap the, er, crap looks, I've plucked this snap off the excellent FixMyStreet website, where you can complain to TDC to your heart's content!

Nasty Complaints Procedure

I'm indebted to regular contributor Walter Mitty for highlighting an interesting snippet from last week's cabinet meeting at our beloved Thanet Council.

In between congratulating themselves on what a splendid job they're doing and scoffing all the buns, the Duffers debated a new policy on 'unreasonably persistent and/or vexatious complaints'. Now, of course, that all sounds incredibly worthy and dull, so let me paraphrase it for you. Basically it's an Anti-Whingers Charter. The upshot is, if you happen to get the hump about your street looking like the Gaza Strip and complain every week that it hasn't been swept, or if you think funds are being misappropriated and pop in a Freedom of Information request every other fortnight, you could now be put on a list and legitimately be ignored, or worse, deemed mentally ill.

Not, of course, that there's anything to complain about in the first place, I hasten to add! No, according to the latest Audit Commission report on TDC, which will be presented to the Uranians next week, they've been classified 'fair'. Which is, er, one up from 'weak' and two down from 'excellent'. The Audit Commission seemed particularly impressed by the claimed user satisfaction with Margate Gateway ('Library' in old money), which goes to prove the old adage that if you do the same survey in an infinite number of ways you're almost bound to end up with the results you want in the end.

The chaps from the commission also found 'improved satisfaction with street cleaning'. Really? Well here's something I found on Victoria Parade this afternoon which made me, and presumably the two coachloads of tourists who were parked up nearby, feel less than 'satisfied':

Litter Spray

Cripes! Judging by the number of email alerts I'm getting from the excellent FixMyStreet website, our beloved council's plan to stop regular cleaning of any road that isn't in a town centre or on the seafront is definitely coming to fruitation (©2000 Kevin Keegan).

Recent complaints to the Uranians via the site include 'lack of street cleaners', 'bin bags', 'domestic rubbish', 'dog mess' and 'litter', 'litter', and, er, 'accumulated litter'. A veritable tsunami of detritus! And that's for a council that boasts the motto 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle'. Well one out of three ain't bad, I suppose.

Still, credit where credit's due. They are at long last getting around to implementing a limited recycling scheme here on Ramsgate's trendy East Cliff. According to a note that just plopped through my letterbox here at the cliff top mansion, a fortnightly paper and cardboard collection will begin as of this Monday. Let's hope the stuff is actually collected and not just left to blow all over the streets, eh? Otherwise I'm sure it won't be long before I'll need a metal detector every time I want to find where I've parked the old jalopy!

Click here to visit FixMyStreet

Street Cleaners Take A/The P*ss

Regular reader Kate writes:

A couple of weeks ago my mother and I spotted one of our TDC street cleaners in the shared communal alleyway opposite our place. Originally I thought he was clearing away some of the left over rubbish. But he did not, he unzipped his fly and pee'd.

He then made a great pretence of looking to collect rubbish and walked off. We had noted in the past he had some unusual habits like drinking leftover bottles of alcoholic liquid.

Anyway we did nothing and thought best to let it pass. Then earlier this week we passed a communal courtyard again to a block of flats. There was a dust-cart/trolley all on it's own, with a different road sweeper peeing up against the wall beneath one of the windows of the flat. This time mum told him that it was not acceptable, and he grumbled off saying: 'I don't bloody care'.

We phoned the TDC customer relations line to speak to the head of the waste disposal team, who had his voicemail on, so mum left a message. We waited all day for a return of our call. The very next day the original offender was back in the alleyway and we saw him yet again unzip and pee.

So in light of it all, you may have rubbish in your street, but at least your operatives aren't adding to it!

Cream Of The Crap

You'll recall that regular reader Samantha, the East Cliff's caped crusader when it comes taking the authorities to task for their woeful inability to keep the streets visible beneath the mountains of detritus left by litter louts and council operatives, has had a wasp in her bonnet recently over the state of Augusta Road and its environs.

Last month I published a letter she received from the council wallahs on Uranus, which basically said the mess was everyone else's fault bar the, er, council's. She has since progressed her complaint via Thanet South MP Dr Steve Ladyman, and has now received a slightly more action orientated response from the same aforementioned Uranians, viz:

Our inspections indicated that the source of litter in the area is primarily from dumped bags of rubbish. The area also suffers from gulls attacking poorly contained refuse which is prevalent at this time of year. I have tasked a driver to clear dumped rubbish on a daily basis this should be done by about 0900. We will also be looking at sweeping the area as close to refuse collection as possible, however at the present time our resources are stretched with beach cleaning and covering staff holidays.

Additionally I have requested that our enforcement team take some action in the area with a view to prosecuting offenders.

Hmm, so it seems at least some effort will be made to prevent the East Cliff drowning in discarded nappies and rotting food. But as Samantha points out in her email to me, it's still only sticking plaster remedies, and it's still liberally littered with excuses. What is actually required is some blue sky thinking (eurgh!!) to come up with a lasting solution for an area that the council has, for reasons only known to itself, deemed unfit for wheelie bins. Ideas on the usual postcard please!

More Rubbish From The Council

Regular contributor Samantha writes:

Following the recent dreadful state of the roads behind Victoria Parade in Ramsgate after the rubbish has been collected I wrote to Thanet Council to complain. Here is their response:

'Your comment concerning spilt waste is common at this time of year. Due to the actions of local seagulls it is a prevalent problem, it is one of the main reasons that we are gradually introducing wheeled bins into the district. It is appreciated that a number of properties will be unsuitable for wheeled bins, at the current time those properties will continue with the sack/dustbin weekly collection service.

As the number of wheeled bins increases this enables us to reduce sweeping in those areas and concentrate on areas where we either have a sack collection system or other litter issues i.e. other areas with heavy footfall like town centres.

In the interim period it is clearly the householders responsibility to securely contain waste prior to collection. I appreciate that may be difficult, however that does not change the legal obligation. In addition to using sacks you may also place the sacks in a dustbin for secure containment, alternately some residents have advised me that placing a sheet over the bags offers an effective deterrent.

Our refuse crews are required to collect suitably contained waste, they do not have the time to act as street cleaners, if they did so a number of other households would not receive a waste collection on the right day. For this reason we try to program sweeping as close to refuse day as possible. This is not always achieved due to staff holidays, an obvious problem at this time of year, or sickness, however our cleansing teams will consider how to improve this aspect in your area.'

Hmm. So let's translate that from the Uranian, shall we?

1. You're one of a long line of whingers.
2. Don't blame us blame the seagulls.
3. We're introducing wheelie bins which will sort the problem, but don't count on getting one before the next ice age.
4. You probably won't get wheelie bins where you are anyway.
5. When enough wheelie bins have been rolled out in other areas your street cleaner will probably be redeployed to help our cafe culture pals who are far too important/lazy/cheapskate to clear up their own mess.
6. We just said it was the seagulls' fault but actually it's yours. However, we won't bother enforcing any of these 'legal obligations' on inconsiderate householders who dump their bin bags on the pavement all week.
7. Staff holidays are an obvious problem at this time of year, so obvious in fact that we haven't bothered to make any alternative arrangements. So it's no wonder the place looks like a shithole at a time when many people will be, er, taking their holidays in the area.
8. Er, that's it.

Kuh! And to think people actually get paid to manage this mess!

Thanet Council Drop It But Do They Cop It?

Separated At Birth?

Regular contributor Samantha writes:

I wonder if anyone else has spotted the similarity between Augusta Road in Ramsgate and this photo of a landfill site I found on the internet? Are they by any chance related?

Augusta Road, Ramsgate

Landfill

I've noticed, Samantha, that this happens every Thursday when the rubbish is collected. Quite why the road sweeper doesn't trot along behind the dustcart is beyond me. Lumps of stinking, festering crap are left all over the street for a full 24 hours, rotting in the summer sun. All thanks to Thanet Council's stultifying inefficiency and their failure to introduce wheelie bins to the area. There they are, jumping out of bushes and fining casual smokers for chucking their butts on the pavement, yet they're happy to sit by and watch a major public health problem develop through their own ineptitude.

Still, look on the bright side. It won't be long, I predict, before we'll be able to celebrate the restoration of another bit of our Victorian heritage thanks to Thanet Council - cholera and typhoid!

What A Load Of Rubbish

Tooling down to the Costcutter this morning for my copy of our local blue top, I came across this sorry sight:


We're told that Thanet Council, along with other agencies, are currently implementing 'Operation Clean Sweep' here in Ramsgate. I do believe they've missed a bit!