Unhelpful impasse after needle find

A quite unhelpful impasse has developed following a needle find outside a block of flats in Swansea.

A “mountain” of 50 rubbish bags have been left to build up outside a Swansea  flat block after needles were discovered in household waste. Residents said the large pile of bags had been allowed to grow outside the  Paviland Place flats in Portmead after the needle discovery was made eight weeks  ago.

A resident reported that they “have been in touch with environmental health and the housing department but  they say they are not going to touch the bags with needles.”

The hazards are well known and will be of no surprise to those tasked with dealing with wastes, so this particular impasse reflects badly on the Local Authority and its departments. If they will not deal with the rubbish, who will? Who should?

Blenkharn Environmental has taken close interest in Local Authority performance in recent years, with particular regard to their management of clinical wastes from domestic premises, and of drug litter management. There were no rankings of service standards in those surveys, but instead an attempt to raise awareness of both good and bad, with a view to improving the latter; Swansea services could not be evaluated as the information provided was negligible or non-existent.

Of course, nobody wants to deal with such wastes but it is becoming a fact of life. Appropriate care should be taken when handling ANY domestic and other refuse, with relevant PPE items used at all times. It isn’t nice work but not impossible to do safety, and Local Authority staff must be capable to dealing with this.

That Swansea environmental and housing department staff seem to be sulking about the problem in the hope that it might go away, or perhaps to punish those responsible, and many others who pay their Council Tax and have a right to expect a reasonable service that includes rubbish clearance is reprehensible.

Swansea should hold its head in shame, and the elected representatives need to exercise their influence, quickly and positively, or risk loosing their seats. More importantly, the Local Authority ombudsman should be looking closely at the performance of the Swansea Council with a view to sanctions for this clear failure to support the communities that they serve.

 

 

 

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