Council criticised over gritting and bins

Rochdale Council has come in for heavy criticism for not doing enough to grit roads and pavements in the Borough.

It is understood that gritting is contracted out to a private company, Balfour Beattie.

Heywood and Middleton MP Jim Dobbin says: "I have never been happy with the arms length contracting system.

"There is a deficit inherent in the system where the democratic control is weak and very often missing. The loser is always the local community and council tax payer. I experience this lack of accountability in many of my dealings with the local authority departments.

"The delivery of public services needs re-examined in order to put the customers in control and get them more involved in local decisions."

The Council has also had many complaints of bins not being emptied, in some cases after repeated assurances that they would be.

A spokeswoman for the Council issued the following statement: "Residents in the Rochdale borough are advised to leave their refuse bins out if they haven’t been collected as per the revised collection schedule due to the adverse weather conditions.

"Whilst the council is still aiming to honour the revised schedule issued last week following last week’s adverse weather conditions, some areas still remain hazardous because of ice and frozen snow. This has slowed collections down considerably and has resulted in some rolling into today from yesterday. It is also anticipated the same may happen for collections due tomorrow. As such, residents are advised to leave their refuse bins out until they have been collected.

"The council wishes to remind residents that refuse waste only will be collected this week. Please ensure recycling bins are kept on properties as these will not be collected this week."