C brands Coventry City ouncil as incompetent
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Mike Jewell otry City Council has been left aced after it was berated by a c Commissioner for "incompe: and irresponsibility" for allowts refuse wagons to operate oaded.
'orse still, the Council has had its ue cut by West Midlands TC I Dixon from 101 vehicles to 70, a further nine operational vehisuspended for a fortnight.
Birmingham public inquiry
d how refuse wagons had been loaded on 87 occasions in a of just 21: weeks in November The Council was subsequently ecuted last year and fined 30 ( CM25-31 May).
he Council was fined a further 00 in April this year for permit3 refuse wagon driver to exceed uty time ( CM3-9 May). Dixon. said: "This whole sorry saga shows a high degree of incompetence and irresponsibility with regard to road safety."
Mike Rawson, head of services of Coventry Contract Services, said the difficulty was that there was no way of knowing how much weight would be in the wheely bins, as people "tended to use them as skips".
However, there was probably one instance each week where a wagon was operating overloaded. The council collects 120,000 bins a week. The in-cab devices are now calibrated every six months and weight tickets from the landfill site regularly checked. This was not the case in the past.
Criticising the Council, Dixon said: "What I have been told today suggests there are now some systems when previously there weren't any.
"But I remain to be convinced that they are going to be fully effective. I expect all operators, particularly a public body, not to get into this sort of mess."