Following my receiving more complaints on Saturday that the Riverside recycling facility was unavailable first thing in the morning because of flooding, I have made clear to Dundee City Council that West End residents and other Dundee citizens are rather losing patience with the council’s failures over recycling facilities.
I have again raised complaints with the council’s Environment Director and asked for assurances that henceforth both civic amenity sites in the city will be fully operational during their advertised opening times.
When the council administration announced it was closing the Marchbanks Civic Amenity Centre, I sought assurances from the Environment Department that the Riverside site would be open at all advertised times as having only one main site in the west of the city means its vital Riverside is open for business.
My main concern at that time was the regular flooding issues at the site and I received assurances that these were being tackled by the City Engineer.
Saturday's situation showed that the flooding situation has not been properly resolved and this comes on top of previous unavailability of the facility one Saturday last month due to the skips not being emptied.
One constituent told me that the pump being used to try to resolve the issue was thoroughly inadequate and he referred to it as King Canute trying to fight off the waves. The constituent added the man behind him in the queue was hopping mad as he had tried the previous day to drop off garden waste at Baldovie and had been told to go to Riverside. He had just driven 10 miles from his home in the east part of Broughty Ferry only to find the facility he had been told to go to was closed because of flooding.
It really is a quite unacceptable situation and the council really does have to get the act together.