To be totally and utterly fed up with Hartlepool Council and Thirteen?

[EmptyTheFrickingBins]

I'm a regular posted but have name changed because this is going to be outing!

My bin was emptied today for the first time since May (you are not reading that wrong!)

I have contacted Hartlepool Council (HBC from now on) on multiple occasions asking for them to come and empty the bins and the only response they have given is "the bins weren't emptied because they weren't presented."

The bins weren't presented first because because the gates to the communal yard were padlocked closed and then because pest control work was being carried out and we were asked to stay out of the yard.

There are 10+ bins of both colours overflowing with rubbish.

A rat jumped out of mine last night when I was moving it! As a ground floor tenant (small block of flats) I'm paranoid about them getting in to my flat!

I spoke to the today and was told they wouldn't empty the grey recycling bins because they are filled with general waste. They are, but the contractors employed by Thirteen are the ones who filled them while they were killing 60+ rats and removing over a ton of rubbish. I was told to take the rubbish to the local tip - I don't drive and even if I did I wouldn't want rat piss and shit covered rubbish (not to mention the maggots, rotting food and other assorted disgustingness) anywhere near my car. It's a health hazard!

Neither HBC nor Thirteen are willing to take responsibility for the rubbish.

I am so totally and utterly fed up of the stink, the flies, the rats and just fighting with them that I'm considering moving.

I have just written to my MP but is there anything else I can do?

No, it was another tenant. He then refused to remove them and they had to be cut off by the pest control people.

Guys, if you want to argue about politics, can you please start your own thread? Not really the place. Thank you.

I see that 8% of people voted YABU and I think, like me, they don't understand what happened here.

Were the bins supposed to be collected and emptied from the courtyard or were they to be brought out to an external area by the tenants?

A tenant padlocked a door so the tenants couldn't bring the bins out or the council couldn't come in and empty them?

Was the pest problem caused by the rubbish build up since May or was it pre-existing? Which might explain why that tenant wanted to keep the door sealed shut?

Are your bins supposed to be emptied weekly? How many weeks went by before the issue was address by the tenants? The build up of rubbish may not have been avoidable by you but you were always going to end up the victims.

It doesn't sound like the council is at fault.
Do you think your landlord (Thirteen?) should have got the padlock removed sooner?

I'm finding it hard to work out who is at fault here.

Personally, I'd have washed and dried and stored what I could and frozen the meat waste etc until the issue was resolved. I know as one person the impact you could make was limited but it was never going to be a good idea to allow your home to become a rat infested dump.

I wish I understood better how this happened and mainly I hope it's resolved very quickly for you.

Contact Alison Leonard at the council "depot" - down the bottom of Church Street, used to be the offices for Hartlepool Transport. Explain it all, about it being Thirteen etc, and see if she can help.

And if you do end up having to deal with it yourself, (hopefully not!) get together with the other reasonable tenants in the block and contact Poolie Time. They do a very reasonable rubbish removal service, and may also help you talk to Thirteen etc. They're generally really good at helping people out who need it.

Lots of people have very limited space to freeze food, let alone waste. It's also easier to do that if you know you need to as you go along; presumably the OP expected the bins to be taken away imminently. It's much harder to separate waste after the fact and how would she even go about finding her binbag among communal waste? The fact Thirteen, presumably employed by the council, filled bins with building waste which the council now won't remove, is not the fault of residents.

This. She's shocking.

I don't understand how this is the councils fault. They haven't been able to access the bins. Now they can't empty the recycling bin because there isn't recyclables in it. That's standard.

It sounds like the pest control company are to blame if they cleared away waste yet filled the recycling bins with crap. Surely they were paid to remove the waste?

Contact the pest control company.

If the area is padlocked, how are residents using it? Who is the freeholder of your flats? They need to ensure the bin area is accessible to tenants and the council refuse collectors. One teants cannot just unilaterally lock the area.

Right now you freeholder needs to arrange for a private company to clean the area and get it back in use.

I don't think you understand what "majority" means.

@namechange55465 kindly fuck off to your own thread!

Who is the landlord of the tenant who padlocked them?

And who employed the pest control company?

I suspect the landlord.

Id complain for formally to them and to environmental health.

I can see that Thirteen are the HA. They are responsible for ensuring that waste on their land is not causing issues including harbourage of rats.

As their contractor filled those bins incorrectly then they need to rectify this.

They should also have dealt with the tenant blocking access previously more robustly and quickly.

Does The Hartlepool Mail still do ‘sad face’ front pages? If they do, then contact them and they’ll probably help!
And re. the MP, my parents say that she’s absolutely useless, so you’re definitely better off contacting your councillor.
Fingers crossed that it’s sorted for you, must be horrible.

I'm vegetarian so don't have meat waste. My recycling has been going to my mum's and any food waste to the big bin at work. It's been really fun on the bus!

As far as I can tell, the waste has been building up in the yard for years. It ideally needs a skip but no one is willing to do that and so it sits and festers with us being told to transport it to the tip ourselves despite the fact it's stinking and covered in rat waste.

HBC have done nothing to help- I asked if I could put my recycling bin out yesterday so it could be emptied with the general waste and was told no. The gate was unlocked by the pest control people two weeks ago but we weren't allowed to access the courtyard on bin day. HBC refused to arrange another collection when we could access the courtyard - all they say is that the bins weren't presented and are ignoring all of the other factors. If they could send the bin wagon back out and get all of the bins emptied it would be a massive help but it's all just "computer sez no"

The pest control company are denying that they left it like they did and are saying all the rubbish present at the time was removed. It's not true.

It's not helped by Thirteen and HBC not communicating with each other at all!

Thirteen.

They sent a text to us all asking for the lock to be removed. It wasn't yet nothing was done even though we complained. There's a drug dealer living in one of the flats with his windows smashed to bits and nothing has been done about that, either.

I'd do this tbh, and start from scratch. Tackling whoever locked the gates to start with would be good too

Have you tried environmental health? They may be able to step in and get someone to take action.

Have thirteen escalated a complaint? At this stage it should surely be at CEO level.

I can't afford it.

Sounds horrible. As an ex housing worker, I understand your frustration with the poor communication and lack of willingness to put tenants first! I hope one or all of your local councillors takes this on board. Please update when (if) its all resolved.

I’d also be having a word with your community police officers about a flat used for dealing.

Have you posted on town of Hartlepool on Facebook?

Have you posted on town of Hartlepool on Facebook?

I have not. Might be a good idea!

It's not the council's fault that the bins were in a locked courtyard and not on the roadside for collection. They are not going to collect household waste on recycling days. They are not going to send a lorry out just to collect your bins. Now the courtyard is open on the next general waste day make sure all the bins are outside on the roadside for collection.

You've missed the point - they will not empty the grey recycling bins on any day because they're filled with general waste. And quite frankly, ever since a massive rat jumped out of my bin, I don't want to go anywhere near them!