STIRLING councillors have clashed with staff over noisy early morning bin collections.
Cr Elizabeth Re wanted the City to stop waste being collected before 7am Monday to Saturday and on Sundays after complaints from residents.
She told the last council meeting that people had complained about noisy trucks picking up household bins from 5am and 6am.
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READ NOWCr Karlo Perkov was also irked by early morning waste services, saying trucks arrived on his street at 5.50am and created a disturbance.
“It never used to happen this early,” he said.
“It’s a very long street and they’re there very, very early.”
But infrastructure director Michael Littleton said he would be “very surprised” if that was the case because the City would know if their staff started earlier than the designated 6am.
A report by the City said services were primarily provided from 6am to 3pm weekdays, with some regular commercial bin collections on Saturdays because of demand and some public litter bins requiring seven-day servicing.
Administration did not support Cr Re’s motion because some “essential services” were required before 7am, such as collection along major roads, to help with traffic flow and in the interest of public safety but these were managed by noise management guidelines.
According to the report, there were eight complaints from residents in the past year that each resulted in minor operational changes.
“In all but one case, the residents were happy with the responses provided and in the instance where minor modifications could not satisfy the complainant, the route was adjusted,” it said.
The motion failed to gain wider support, with council instead voting to continue services in line with the noise management plan and investigate any complaints.
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