Customer Service Guarantee for Waste Collection

North Norfolk District Council is reinstating its customer service guarantee for refuse collection from next month, so customers can be assured that their bins will be emptied on time - and will get money back if the problem is not put right quickly.

The customer service guarantee means that for every day our contractors fail to go back and pick up a missed collection, if they do not do so in the reasonable time they are allowed, the customer will be given £5.

The guarantee was suspended when NNDC's previous waste contract ended earlier this year, and to allow the new contractor, Norfolk County Services, a six-month period of grace while introducing complex arrangements for refuse collection using new wheeled bins.

Indeed, the contractor will still have time to adjust to collections in new areas - the guarantee will not apply for the first eight weeks after the start of a customer's collections. Collections have been phased in across North Norfolk, and have started, or will start, on different dates in different areas.

Once those eight weeks are up, customers can expect the following:

• The customer needs to notify NNDC that collection has been missed by 5pm on the day the collection was due, or by 5pm the following day (call 01263 516189 to do so).
• The contractor has until 5pm the day after that to pick up the rubbish (potentially, therefore, the second day after the collection was due).
• If the contractor then still fails to pick up the rubbish, the customer will be given £5 for every further day the collection does not take place - including Sundays.
• The guarantee only applies to waste that was supposed to be picked up. NNDC's Twin Bins collection scheme sees recyclables collected using a green wheeled bin one week, and other household rubbish in a grey bin the next; also, a recycling bin contaminated with non-recyclables may, quite properly, be left by the contractor along with a note explaining why it was not emptied.

The customer service guarantee comes back into effect from 4 October, 2004. So, bearing in mind the eight-week 'settling in' period that will still apply to some customers, people can invoke the guarantee from the following dates in the following areas:

This table is intended as a broad guide only, as collection days may differ from village to village and street to street. A detailed list of the dates on which the customer service guarantee comes into effect in each location will soon be posted at www.northnorfolk.org/refuse (or people can call 01263 516189 to find out precisely when it will apply to their home).

NNDC Corporate Director Ruth Langslow said: "This guarantee is coming back into play after six months, as we always intended. It is designed to ensure that everyone involved - this Council, our contractor, and our customers - knows what standard of service is expected, and what the consequences are if customers are let down.

"The time we allowed ourselves and our contractor to adjust to these new arrangements has passed in many parts of our District, where our customers should now expect collections to work smoothly and regularly. Where people have endured some disruption, we are very grateful to them for their patience and we apologise, for our own part and on behalf of our contractor, for any inconvenience they have suffered.

"Where collections are still settling down, or have yet to start, we hope to keep disruption to a minimum, but ask people please to have patience. Organising and learning the rounds for a District of this size is a huge task for our contractor, and some problems are, perhaps, inevitable. Those problems can be ironed out, and this guarantee ensures that they will be."

ENDS