Plymouths Terminal 5 fiasco?

 

TEETHING troubles hit Plymouth City Council's new waste collection regime this week. After a seemingly hiccup-free start to the week, complaints began to flood in about bins and bags not collected across large parts of the city. Bin staff were forced to ditch their new four-day week as soon as it started.

New Plymouth bin scheme leaves hundreds waiting

With such a big change to the collection pattern it was inevitable that there would be teething problems, I was surprised that it took a few days into the week before they started hitting the news. Our own collection on Monday was only a partial success in that only the brown bin was collected - our green collection never happened! I am sure it will all settled own quickly enough.
The headline? Oh - that comes from a comment on the news item (click the link above). Apparently a few bins not being emptied on the correct day equates to thousands of bags going missing at Terminal Five!

Going to waste

Plymouth City Council has made a massive investment in new refuse collection vehicles over the past year with a large number of brand new Mercedes Econics on the road.

But there are several other types out there too:

Isuzu NQR Refuse Compactor

Mitsubishi Canter

©Nick Rice

And I am glad to say, Dennis Elite2 - Its not all foreign imports!

Viridor Waste Contract

Now that Chelson Meadow is full all our waste from Plymouth is being transported across the water into Cornwall, and its being taken there in a smart fleet of DAF CF Bulk Waste Trucks operated by Viridor. A couple of hours spent with my camera at Marsh Mills this morning so managed to get a few of them on camera for the first time.

Over 250 photos taken today so plenty to share over the next few days (dont worry I wont blog all of them!)

Expensive dust carts

Uploaded by nackybaby on 20 May 07 (Flickr Blog This)

The cost of replacing Plymouth's ageing fleet of rubbish collection lorries will be £3.9 million.The city council's Cabinet is being asked to approve the spending at its meeting next week.

The lease on the council's fleet of 30 on-road refuse lorries expires by next June and it needs to buy a fleet of 29 vehicles in four sizes. They will be allocated to new zones across the city in the New Year.Most of the money - about £3.2 million - will be spent in this financial year, and the rest in 2010/11. The new fleet could arrive as early as February 2008.

New rubbish trucks

Plymouth's ageing fleet of rubbish lorries is to be replaced as part of an improvement programme aimed at making the city's waste operation better and greener.The new lorries will be tailor-made to suit the needs of Plymouth, with its hills and high number of back lanes with tight access.
The city council's Cabinet is expected to give the go-ahead for 29 vehicles to be bought when it meets on September 4.
The new fleet will have vehicles of four different-sizes. They will be allocated to new zones across the city in the New Year.
Although the details are still being worked out, the zones will enable smaller vehicles to feed back into the larger vehicles, to keep tip runs down.
The council now has 30 vehicles in its on-road refuse fleet. The lease on most of the vehicles will expire by next June.
Because of the age of the trucks, there have been a high number of breakdowns, forcing the council to hire vehicles for the waste and recycling rounds.
The new fleet could arrive as early as February 2008. The council has used the services of a local authority buying and distribution consortium, which is evaluating eight tenders.

All I can say is - at last! The City Council used to have a good smart fleet of dustcarts, with regular deliveries of three or four new trucks each year which resulted in a good balanced fleet of trucks in several different sizes and featuring quite a few different makes. Back in the late 1980's they introduced a smart two tone green livery although this was replaced by a plain white livery in the 1990's. The past few years has seen little investment in the fleet and now all we see are mainly loaned trucks. It will be interesting to see what they actually end up buying, and I do hope that they will recieve some sort of special livery - although I expect it will be the 'Recycle Plymouth' livery just stuck on the sides of plain white trucks. Good news all the same.

One of the loaned trucks is pictured above, a DAF LF with Ros Roca bodywork, presumably a demonstration loan rather than a standard loan?

Dustbin Lorries

Its a poor photo but it caught me by suprise!

I was expecting to get out and about today as I had a day off all to myself. One poorly wife later and my day out ending up as being just one and a half hours down at Marsh Mills taking photographs. Still over 300 were taken to add to the 700 I still have sitting on my hard drive waiting to be processed!

One big suprise was a new batch of dustcarts operating for plymouth City Council which I have not noted before. The biggest suprise being the BMC demonstrator. Quite a smart looking machine.

Incoming Rubbish

At the moment some rubbish from outside Plymouth comes into the City to be disposed off at the main Chelston Meadow waste centre. South Hams District Council bring in loads each day, presumably from the surrounding areas closest to Plymouth. It seems all this could change soon as the main tip is now almost full and is due to be closed in 2007. Plans are being put in place at the moment which will see our waste being exported elsewhere.

Borrowed dustbin lorries

Was suprised to see this Dennis Elite / Phoenix2 dustcart this morning. Tuesday morning is out normal refuse collection and today was also the 'green bin' day so I was expecting to see two Plymouth City Council dustcarts. In fact both duties were performed by WCR vehicles as VX55KMK had just gone up the hill when this one came down it. Not sure why PCC have to borrow dustcarts at the moment but it makes a nice change!
dbygraham

Plymouth City Centre Company

I have been after this one for ages! In full City Centre Company red livery is brand new Applied "Green Machine 525" sweeper SN05GPJ.

didbygraham

Plymouth City Council

Plymouth City Council operate a Bulk Waste Collection service using a small fleet of these very useful DAF 45 high sided tippers. Back in the early 1980's the Bedford TL was the favoured truck followed by a spell of buying Ford Cargo trucks during the second half of the 1980's. By the early 1990's Plymouth had moved to Leyland -DAF for most of its larger truck requirements and this has continued to be the case ever since. Current new trucks are mostly based around the DAF LF truck range.
V985ETT is allocated fleet number 027.005 and is a DAF 45.150 new in November 1999 and is seen at the bottom of Keswick Crescent, Estover

didbygraham

A load of rubbish...

A nice shot of a Dennis Elite Phoenix Refuse Compaction Vehicle (RCV) belonging to Plymouth City Council on one of its Trade Waste rounds. Plymouth has been buying three or four new refuse trucks each year and has a fairly modern fleet at the moment with many of these attractive Dennis vehicles along with various other DAF and Seddon Atkinson based lorries. I have been interested in these trucks for quite a few years now and have seen how these vehicles have changed over the years. If you are interested in seeing more then the book below is well recommended as a pictorial record.