Rubbish!

Veolia, in some circles, has been rubbished. The transition to four-day collections, from five -day, coupled with the introduction of blue boxes for paper and card had not gone well. It looks like a failure of foresight. Southend-on-Sea Borough has become a rubbish down, rubbish everywhere - uncollected, spilled, fly-tipped.

The situation is improving, but it is not yet back to where it was earlier in the year.

At a recent briefing with Veolia I ventured my opinion that there had been a failure of planning. Veolia had been awarded the contract some six months before this debacle, and had managed to give every impression of having no plan at all.

I support the roll out of better recycling promised by the new blue boxes. I support the move to a four-day collection schedule. I support the money-saving move of having Veolia replace Cory. I am very disappointed by recent events, though. I want Veolia to succeed in Southend-on-Sea, and to do so they have got to do better.