The Wheelie Bin Saga

We have rather a lot of bins.

- A grey wheelie bin, for general rubbish
- A green wheelie bin, for garden waste
- A black wheelie bin with a blue lid, for cardboard and recyclable plastic
- A black box, for newspaper, glass and tins.

Which is a bit irritating, as there is nowhere to keep any of them except on the street in front of the houses, and there is not really enough space for 3 big bins. I was able to get smaller bins for the grey and green ones, but they don't offer smaller ones for the recycling (and really, who produces 240 litres of cardboard and plastic a fortnight?)

ANYWAY, in January, the bin-men broke the lid of my blue-lidded bin.

"No Problem", I thought. "Wiltshire Council has a handy on-line form you can complete to report such things, and they will then replace or repair your bin."

I filled in the form, and received an acknowledgment, which warned that it might take 21 days to replace/repair a bin.

Time passed. No new bin appeared.

More time passed. No new bin appeared.

Even more time passed..

In March, I sent a further mail to the council. Maybe council-days are longer thn normal ones, and "up to 21 days" really means "2 months or more"

I got a response. It seems that my original request had been cast into a deep pit of forgetfulness. But they were very sorry and I would get a new bin within 21 days.

Time passed (again). No new bin appeared.

More Time passed. No new bin appeared.

About 5 weeks after my second request, a brand new black recycling box appeared.

For reference, what I needed was a 240 litre wheelie bin. What I got was a 55 litre box, to replace the completely undamaged and usable box I already had.

I e-mailed the council again. I'm on first name terms with Jonathan in the waste and recycling department, now. He seems nice.

He apologizes. He will  try to sort things out. He warns me that it may take up to 21 days for my new wheelie bin to be provided...

Today, (a mere 121 days after my original request) I looked out of my window to see a crew of council workers removing my old, damaged bin and delivering a new one!

And then, about 90 minutes later, a second crew turned up, with another shiny new bin. I saw them standing outside trying to see how my bin was damaged, and I was only just in time to stop them taking the new one away (I mean, I hadn't had time to get attached to it, but I had stuck some sticky numbers on it to identify it as mine, and I should hate for it to be rejected so early in it's career.

The only thing is.... someone stole my recycling box yesterday, so I've just reported that and requested a new one.

I've got an e-mail back from the council.

They say it may take up to 21 days to replace my recycling box......