Change to waste site hours ‘not good enough’

I have to ask, are they not there to provide a public service?

I work 8am-5pm Monday to Saturday and 10am-noon on Sunday. How am I supposed to get my unwanted fridge down there? Perhaps I should just drive in and leave it by the gate, like I am sure many people will now do. (Before their spokesperson says that is illegal, well so is fly-tipping all around the island and that is still going on, and these silly new hours will only see an increase in that.)

I have seen that Eastleigh’s recycling centre is open 9-6, seven days a week, apart from three days a year, so why are we having such a substandard service? It really is not good enough and this decision by some 9-5 civil servant needs changing.

TREVOR HOCKEY,

Trev’s Motorcycles.

Editor’s footnote: Guernsey Waste operations manager Sarah Robinson replies:

To answer your correspondent’s general point, we do provide a public service. The cost of that provision is met by islanders, so we also have a duty to ensure these services are delivered in a cost-effective manner.

We therefore recently took the opportunity to review the opening hours of all the sites operated by Guernsey Waste. As part of that review, a number of factors were considered, not least being usage of the existing facilities.

For example, the current Longue Hougue Recycling Facility previously opened at 7.30am on weekdays, but on average there were only two visitors a day before 8am. We therefore now open slightly later during the week, which is a relatively minor change.

The busiest day is Saturday, but during the winter the facility was previously open only in the mornings. In other words, from the end of next month the site would have been closed in the afternoon.

We therefore made the decision to open all day now on Saturdays, throughout the year, from 8am-4pm. That means we will be operating longer hours at the weekend during the winter than previously, making the site more available at the time when islanders prefer to use it. It closes at 4pm because in the past there were relatively few visitors after that time.

While Saturday is the busiest day, Sunday is less so. When the site was open in the afternoons, between April and October, it was generally quieter than on weekdays. Similarly on bank holidays, although the site was usually open all day, we had much less footfall than on an average weekday.

So to provide extra hours on Saturday, all year round, we no longer open on Sunday afternoons. Under the previous seasonal provisions, it would have been closed anyway for six months of the year. However it is still open for four hours every Sunday morning all year round.

The green waste site at Chouet also now has the same weekend operating hours as Longue Hougue. This is for simplicity from an operational perspective and follows a similar review of usage.

I cannot comment on what Eastleigh provides, other than to say we researched a number of other facilities, such as in Jersey and in the UK serving a similar population to Guernsey. Their opening hours varied greatly and it was apparent there was no best practice or one size fits all.

The changes we have made at Longue Hougue now better match the times when islanders have previously wanted to use the site. Presumably Eastleigh has a similar approach, as do other locations.

Your correspondent asks what they can do with their fridge. Even given their less than usual working hours, the Longue Hougue Recycling Facility is available to them from 8am on Sunday, when they could drop it off.

In addition to that site – open six days a week, year round – we also provide a bulk refuse service. For a charge of £15 per application, we will collect up to five large items, such as kitchen appliances and furniture, directly from their home.

We are sorry if your reader was not aware of the new opening hours. We made an announcement through the media in August and the times are included daily in the Guernsey Press Noticeboard page. They are also available on our website, at www.gov.gg/wasteopeningtimes.