Cornwall Councils Rubbish

Or as it is becoming known the farce that is CoryGate. Refuse not being collected, promises being broken, the whole refuse collection system in one of the most beautiful counties in the UK is a mess to say the least.

Last night on local TV, BBC Spotlight, we had representatives from the Council and Cory, the waste management company who have recently taken over the contract for the whole of the county, looking like two naughty schoolboys called to the headmasters office to explain some misdemeanour. Full of humility and apologies as they were, I for one didn't have confidence in either party to resolve what is a fairly serious problem in our county.

Cory took on this contract, worth several million pounds, from a number of waste management contractors who were performing the job in a fairly consistent and well managed way. In the small village in which I live we had a weekly refuse collection for the whole village, the black sacks and dustbins removed by 8.30 each Monday morning with rarely a missed collection and then it was usually in poor conditions when the Council hadn't gritted the roads and a several ton truck sliding down a steep hill would have been foolhardy to say the least. Every other week we had the recycling, all put in the supplied bags and collected by another smaller truck, so that meant for the less than 100 houses in the village in 78 yearly collections it was all done and dusted in a neat and timely manner. Then along came Cory.

We now have 208 yearly collections, Three coloured bags and a box. Cory in their infinite wisdom have split the village into two - half collected on one day the other half later in the week. Excuse me, but how is that efficient, or even ecologically sound, or for that matter cheaper? The place is littered with indiscreet coloured bags for two days a week, longer as was the case when collections were missed. Do the Council not realise that this is a tourist destination and refuse and recycling piled in the streets is hardly a welcome sight in any of our towns and villages.

Someone, somewhere didn't think this thing through, not only is the whole collection system flawed, but Cory can't cope with it, as for giving them two months to put things right, well if I was contracted to mow your lawn once a week and take away the clippings and the first week I didn't turn up, the second I only mowed half the grass and left the clippings and then asked for two months to sort it out I somehow don't think I'd be keeping my job for very long.

Cory are supposed to be professional, I am paying for their services, in my opinion they have had more than long enough to get it right and giving them even more is simply not an option.

One person who has been conspicuous by their absence in this matter is our County Council leader Alec Robertson, the man we pay the best part of a quarter of a million pounds a year to to run this county. The buck stops with him. Alec do your job - sort it out and make damn sure that we, the council tax payers, are not paying twice for a poor service. Apologies don't work anymore, you are in a professional situation. We all make mistakes and can forgive the odd one, but failing to prepare for such a major switchover is down to Corys management. They can get away with not doing their job properly, if I dont pay my Council Tax I go to prison.

This failure is not down to the men and women who collect our refuse, or the drivers or the office staff, but is totally the fault of management, both by Cory and Cornwall Council.

Perhaps my Dad was right, "If it ain't broke don't fix it" the cheapest option isn't always the best. At least if the recycling bags had been red white and blue we could have pretended they were bunting for the Diamond Jubilee, they couldn't even get that right!