• YOUR correspondent is quite right to advocate people making a “commitment to working collaboratively with our council”, (We face a crisis with regard to managing rubbish, January 10).

However it is also important that the council (and Veolia) works collaboratively with local people and businesses. As a resident, my experience suggests that the council in particular needs to smarten up on its customer relations.

I sent oodles of emails complaining about the fact that emptied bins were constantly left on the narrow pavements outside my house causing problems for those visually impaired, mums with buggies and those with mobility scooters.

Of more personal experience, was my attempt to get “assistance” to have my bin moved from its storage shed about four metres to the statutory one metre from my gate. An officer from the council visited me and told me that I did not merit assistance. I felt it necessary to explain that I had a chronic heart condition and also my green recycling bin was very heavy (25kg).

The officer also told me that the council were considering requiring a letter from a GP as the evidence necessary for assistance. The officer admitted he was not medically qualified. I felt his attitude was demeaning, arrogant and dismissive of my medical condition. I wrote to the relevant cabinet member (Adam Harrison) seeking an apology and redress. Neither was forthcoming.

I suggest that if this had been a private sector service I would have gone elsewhere. After numerous emails and contact with a much more “customer oriented” Veolia manager, I can report that my, and neighbours’, bins are no longer (with the rare lapse) left obstructing the footpath.

Also, at least for the time being, the threat of needing a GP letter has been withdrawn I suggest that some customers, if they received the same treatment as I did, might not be as “collaborative” as your correspondent wishes.

It is, I suggest, to the council that one needs to look to rather than, on the basis of no evidence whatsoever, the mythical Camden “temporary resident” who is blamed by your correspondent for the failure of “collaboration”.

MICK FARRANT
NW3