COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE (1)

Monday, March 15, 2010

MOTION NO. 11

MOTION: Councillor C. King

That this Committee, while commending the work of staff dealing with the additional workload relating to the new bin system, calls on the Manager to provide a detailed report stating progress on the complete delivery of the service in the Tallaght area including chipping of bins, delivery of cards and issues relating to the waiver scheme and for the report to include the reasons for a large section of the Community being without cards and chipped bins at the time of the launch of the new system.

REPORT:

Customer/Bin Registration

As reported frequently at Area Committee Meeetings during the 18 month lead in to the full implementation of the new system, a significant number of customers did not take the opportunities presented to them to have their bins registered. A Registration completion rate of approximately 97% was acheived however, this meant that approximately 2,500 Customers had still not availed of registration opportunities by 1st February.

In addition to these Customers, a large number of Customers appear to be updating their status now that the new system is in place. These are Customers who had not previously notified that Council of their use of the Council's service and had continued using bins in the name of previous occupants of properties etc.

The residual number of customers showing on the database as having unregistered bins is now being analysed to examine whether they are still waste collection customers, have replacement bins which are registered, have moved address or have some other issue which may require resolution. Our teams, who have already called to in excess of 5,000 customers, will continue to call out to these customers and others reporting faulty chips and now that the initial backlog of queries has been addressed response times and resolution of issues will be quicker.

Replacements Cards

Cards were issued to all addresses in the County in receipt of a refuse collection service whether customers were registered or not. Under the tag system, while Customer's were asked to notify the Council of any change of details/circumstances, this was not absolutely necessary while simple presentation witha tag was the requirement. Cards were however issued with details as per the Council's records at the time of issue.

Customers were issued cards while a cross over period was maintained to facilitate Customers in using their remaining tags. These cards issued in October 2009, some some three months prior to exclusive use of the new system. Regrettably cards have been forgotten about, mislaid or lost. In addition, where Customers had continued to use the old tag system instead of moving to the new system early on, any issues relating to their details/accounts etc were not highlighted over the lead in period.

Approximately 9,000 replacement cards have issued to date.

Waivers

There are no issues in relation to the operation of the waiver scheme in tandem with the new advance credit system.   All approved waiver customers have been assigned the appropriate lift credit for the quarter from 1st February to 30th April.