LAST month, a Wokingham resident caught refuse collectors mixing recycling with blue bag waste. Now he’s caught a worker relieving himself in the street.
Wokingham Borough Council has said that the practice of spending a penny in public was ‘unacceptable’ and ‘not tolerated’ and promised action.
Colin George, who filmed the contractor from Veolia, was surprised by what he saw.
“He didn’t widdle in the road,” he explained, “it was in a bush. His modesty was protected by the bin but the footage doesn’t leave much to the imagination.
“They’re up early in the mornings and they think they can get away with it.”
And Mr George said that it wasn’t the first time he has seen such events take place.
“I’ve known them to widdle in the road, up against the truck,” he said. “It’s not unusual in the 30 years I’ve lived here, but it’s not that often, usually just once or twice a year.”
He called for the council to fit better cameras on to the refuse collection trucks. At the moment, they are installed to monitor what goes in to the machines to assure residents that recycling and waste are not mixed, but go into separate compartments.
Mr George said: “They (the crews) know there is a camera at the back of the truck, they need more surround vision around it.
“The cameras only look at the back of the truck. If you walk a few feet back, you can’t see anything.
“The council had no conclusive evidence that the blue bags had been put in with the recycling waste until I presented them with my video footage.”
Responding to Mr George’s video, Cllr Parry Batth, executive member for environment and leisure at Wokingham Borough Council, said: “Urinating in public is unacceptable and is not tolerated across any of our services.
“We appreciate that refuse collectors spend a significant period of their day away from appropriate facilities but this doesn’t excuse this practice in any way.”
He added: “There are a number of designated facilities across the borough that are available for use by the collectors throughout their day.
“We will follow up with our contractors to ensure this does not happen again.”
