The Tribune

COMPLAINTS from residents over rubbish piling up in dumpsters and bins and being left to rot on the ground in Englerston have been answered after photographs and a report in The Tribune last week.

The pictures, taken near Robinson Road, drew attention to the problem and a day after the report appeared in the newspaper, John Arty returned to the locations to find the areas “clean, green and the most pristine it’s ever been in a long time”.

People living in Englerston, Yellow Elder, Marathon and Sea Breeze had all reported issues of garbage and piles of bags being left in the summer heat for two to three weeks without collection.

When contacted, the Department of Environmental Health Services told The Tribune that they had received complaints and said that they were working on fixing the issue immediately. A department official blamed difficulties with schedules and mechanical issues in all four areas and in Seabreeze additionally, there was one week when a road due for collection was missed and the error compounded the following week.

Glenys Hanna Martin, the MP for Englerston, had also received complaints and blamed the density of housing for the problems, suggesting that the collection process should be speeded up. “These are high density areas,” she said. “The problem is being dealt with. I think DEHS is in need of an accelerated paradigm to deal with these communities.”

Complaints to the Ministry of Works about a large pothole on Eastern Road below Blackbeard’s Tower which had gone unanswered and were reported in The Tribune on Monday has also been repaired. Road users said the pothole, which had been ringed in red with an arrow pointing to it and the word “HOLE”, had been attended to the “very night after The Tribune story”.