Forum Topic

Hounslow Councils Financial Black Hole

Shocking news from the front page especially the 4.5 million overspend on the waste contractGood news the councillors managed to vote in their 19% backdated increase in allowances just before this news broke

Paul Fisher ● 2703d9 Comments

If the bins are bought for the purpose of being loaded into a refuse truck then surely they should be fit for purpose for this use?  Not all the garden bins have been damaged so was it a particular batch?  We bought wheelies for garden storage years ago (from a Brentford company) and they are a noticeably thicker plastic.  One thing is certain they are to be lifted onto a garden waste truck and tipped up by the mechanism, at least 26 times in a year.  Isn’t that what was purchased?

Sarah Felstead ● 2698d

They are probably the ones that were used in the great blockade of Curran’s house & were sabotaged back in the day.

Robin Dickers ● 2699d

In your googling of this topic, did it seem a problem with their manufacture or one of them being broken by the Waste collection people?

Christopher Gillie ● 2699d

The 19% and the Exec pay might offend people, but it is a drop in the ocean compared to central government grant cuts.Look at the effect of these in £People might want to get holier than thou and virtue signal about this that and the other, but the elephant in the room is the grant cuts, whereas councillor/exec pay is a tadpole by comparison.

Christopher Gillie ● 2699d

Several garden waste bins in our road have exactly the same long splits in the side and are having to be replaced.  If you google the topic there are Councils who have lost a tidy sum to replacing their bins.  Has somebody holding the contract challenged their ‘fit for purpose’?

Sarah Felstead ● 2700d

The amount of litter bins just left to overflow everywhere is a scandal, Hounslow centre from Hounslow Station right up Staines Rd. looks like a tip, and almost every bin along Mogden Lane was the same, and were like it at the weekend too. Granted the council does not employ morons to leave their rubbish out in the street - residents seem more than capable of doing that for themselves, but they do have their part to play and they are just not doing it.

Vanessa Smith ● 2702d

The Tory Cuts excuse doesn’t hit the spot, when it comes to a 19% Councillors allowance pay rise & the merry go round of a new CEO’s enormous  salary package, does it really.

Robin Dickers ● 2702d

So there is an overspend in Waste yet the Borough still looks like a third world cesspool and rubbish dump with litter, litter, litter, fly tipping and more litter. Recycle boxes scattered all over the place and unemptied overflowing wheelie bins. Not to mention black bags of rotting household waste  dumped all over the place and unemptied street bins all over the place.  Well done Hounslow. You make us proud. Mary Harpley and Brendon Walsh really cleaned up this Borough didn't they?

Steve Taylor ● 2702d

Given the scale of cuts by the Tories, it is hardly surprising. Maybe the new Chief Exec from Sutton will be able to repair things.

Christopher Gillie ● 2702d

I would like to think that not many suddenly have a black hole of £17.6 Million though however they try and spin itUtter imcompetence

Paul Fisher ● 2702d

Councils all over the country have deficits now.  Whatever you think of Hounslow they are certainly not alone here.

Philippa Bond ● 2702d