Council update on household bin collection services – March 2024

Fermanagh and Omagh District is committed to delivering a high quality household bin collection service to residents across the district.

While the Council has collected 98% of household bins on the scheduled day over the past 12 months, we acknowledge that regrettably, some households have experienced ongoing disruption to household bin collection services, mainly in relation to the collection of brown food waste caddies. This falls short of the level of service that the Council wishes to provide to householders and which residents rightfully expect. We sincerely apologise for this.

While there are a variety of issues from roadworks to weather conditions which can impact our refuse crews’ ability to access properties, over the past 12 months the Council’s service has been particularly affected as a result of legacy work practices, which, with our Trade Union colleagues, we are seeking to resolve.

When we do not have the required staff resource available to us, priority is given to the collection of black and green residual bins.  Unfortunately, this results in an interruption to the collection of brown food waste caddies on some routes on occasion.  We recognise the inconvenience and frustration felt by those impacted and make every effort to redeploy staff, where possible, to service caddies that have not been collected on two consecutive occasions.

The Council is investing in its fleet and associated routing technology to ensure it has the most suitable, reliable and technologically capable vehicles available to support a safe and effective household bin collection service. We also continue to support our staff to ensure that our services are responsive, reliable and meet the needs of householders.

We would like to thank residents for their continued efforts to ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ and encourage them to continue to do so to help protect the environment.

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council remains fully committed to providing high quality, efficient and effective services to its residents and is actively striving to put in place a long-term solution to the current challenges experienced in some parts of the district. We thank those impacted for their understanding and patience as we continue to work through this process.