New daily collection service to stop business waste piling up

A NEW afternoon waste collection service for businesses in Henley is being launched to help prevent rubbish piling up on the town’s streets overnight.

The decision was made after talks between Grundon Waste Management and the town council.

It comes after the council employed another contractor, GT Can Do, of Henley, to clear the rubbish on a temporary basis following complaints about Grundon changing from evening collections to mornings.

Councillors were concerned about the effect on the town’s night-time economy having bags of rubbish visible to visitors and people out for the evening, particularly during Henley Royal Regatta and the Henley Festival. But Grundon, which is based in Ewelme, has now agreed to provide an extra vehicle collection every afternoon to clear commercial refuse sacks.

Waste bags will be taken to the central depot near Tesco, off Reading Road, and loaded into the relevant containers, before being collected for recycling and reprocessing.

GT Can Do will continue to collect rubbish until the Grundon service is up and running in the next three to four weeks.

John Stephens, Grundon’s group logistics manager, said it will be carried out by a “caged” collection vehicle that will pick up waste from 4pm.

He said: “We recognise that Henley is an incredibly popular hotspot for visitors and that local residents and businesses take great pride in the town. We want to help make sure it remains as beautiful as ever, which is why we have invested in additional services and our time, free of charge, to help overcome the issue of bin bags being left out overnight.”

Town councillor Stefan Gawrysiak said: “We explained to Grundon that we had a problem of business waste left on the streets of Henley from 6pm untill 6am which was unacceptable for the town of Henley.

“We have always known that Grundon are a brilliantly community-minded company and we send a great big thank-you to them for speedily coming up with a solution.”

Grundon is one of several companies supplying commercial waste services to Henley’s shops, restaurants, cafés and other businesses, and already provides twice-daily collections of mixed recycling and general waste with specialist waste vehicles.

Mr Stephens added: “We sincerely hope that by doing this, and also supporting the council by collecting any fly-tipped waste that we see on our rounds, both residents and businesses alike will see we are doing our best to help the Henley community.”

Grundon will also collect on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. The council is looking into GT Can Do carrying out collections on Saturday and Sunday evenings, but this is subject to discussions and full council approval.