North Ayrshire Council is reinstating its special uplift service this week.
The service, which allows for up to five bulky household items to be uplifted, will be offered free of charge for the first collection.
The local authority has waived the standard £25.20 fee until all Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) reopen, to try and make it easier for residents to get rid of unwanted household items that are unable to be stored safely.
However, in an effort to try and manage demand, the Council is urging only those households who absolutely need to use the service to get in touch.
Significant additional capacity has been made available so that the Council can provide more customers with the free service. However, demand is expected to outstrip supply and therefore anyone who is unable to book a collection slot, should try again at a later date.
To book a free uplift, residents should call 01294 310000 and officers will provide them with an allocated collection slot, depending on availability.
Items should then be grouped together and placed outside the property by 7am on the advised collection day.
Councillor Jim Montgomerie, Cabinet Member for Place, said: “We acknowledge that the suspension of our special uplift service and the closure of Household Waste Recycling Centres has caused considerable inconvenience.
“While a small minority of people took this as an excuse to illegally fly-tip, we appreciate that the majority of our residents have held onto their waste responsibly.
“This free special uplift service is a way of thanking you for your patience and understanding during these difficult times. We hope that it will also help to ease pressure at our HWRCs when they reopen.
Councillor Montgomerie added: “Along with every other Council in Scotland, we are working hard on plans for reopening our HWRCs on a phased basis from 1 June onwards. Changes to how recycling centres operate will be required to ensure physical distancing to keep our customers and staff safe, as well as to manage traffic in the initial stages.
“We will provide further details on our approach to opening our four HWRCs in the coming days.
“In the meantime, I’m proud of our essential workers who have continued to provide all of our household bin collection services without disruption throughout the pandemic. This is in contrast to other areas where Councils have had to made decisions to temporarily suspend some bin collections.”
Only certain items can be collected as part of a special uplift, please refer to the Council’s FAQs for more information.
Here’s a quick snapshot of what we’ve learned so far.
Most of those responding access Connects regularly, with 80% visiting the pages at least once a week.
The majority use Connects to find:
information
documents
people
We asked what people liked about Connects
We were able to identify the following recurring themes in the responses:
‘one-stop-shop’ for information
user friendly
easy to access
clear layout and navigation
good search engine
We asked what people disliked about Connects
There were recurring themes in the responses to this question too:
difficulties navigating the site
problems with the search engine
not being able to find things, like contact details or documents when not sure of its exact name
out of date information
We asked what people would like to see added to Connects?
We received lots of great suggestions for consideration with the most common being:
personalisation to allow the user to have most used items on display first
an up-to-date directory (names, job descriptions, responsibilities, team structure and contact details) allowing people to quickly and easily find the right person for the job/enquiry
What happens next?
We will identify ways that we can deliver an intranet that addresses the issues raised and adds value to the organisation. A key part of this will be re-examining the site’s navigation and structure. We will be running tests with colleagues and will be in touch with the 41% of you that said you’d be happy to help with testing.
“Like everyone, we faced unprecedented circumstances, however, our teaching and support staff used their skills, knowledge and experience to act, react and respond to the situation we found ourselves in.– Caroline Amos, Head of Education