HOUSEHOLDERS living at the end of narrow private lanes may have their doorstep refuse collections curtailed. Members of West Devon Borough Council?s environment and community committee last week agreed to a review of the 478 properties scattered across the borough where access was along private lanes or tracks. Where a risk is identified, residents may be asked to take their refuse to the nearest roadside rather than having it collected from outside their houses. Environmental services officer Jill Skelton said the Health and Safety Executive had turned its attention to waste management as an industry whose accident rate was now the highest. There had been a number of fatalities nationwide, although in West Devon there had only been one reportable accident, where an operative had been injured by farm machinery while collecting refuse. Refuse and recycling collection in West Devon is predominantly from the kerbside of the public highway, but some properties have a collection service where the refuse vehicle drives down a private lane or track to pick up materials from near the house, and may need to reverse out or turn in a tight space. ?Some of the roads the lorries go to are narrow and overgrown, and there may be difficulty reversing at the end,? she said. ?We need a review of what we are doing and to assess it address by address to see the risk.? This would be a gradual process over a number of months and be carried out in conjunction with FOCSA, the contractors. Cllr Ted Sherrell he had read the proposal and ?blew a gasket?. ?It is an action I totally disagree with. Clearly, anyone injured or killed in this way is tragic, but I am not aware of anyone in West Devon being injured. ?We are chipping away at services we provide. In rural areas they get even less. How long before we say we mustn?t collect in cul de sacs?? he asked. Cllr Sherrell enquired whether FOCSA would charge less or those affected would have their rates reduced. ?We are in danger of letting the culture of health and safety decimate our culture,? he said. Cllr Dilwyn Hughes said every lorry had a bleeper and with so many staff he wondered why one could not walk behind when reversing. Cllr Alison Clish-Green thought that rather than being dominated by health and safety, our culture had become one in which people went for compensation and wondered how much money they could get out of an accident. West Devon Borough Council?s Helen Dobby said the HSE?s report said the council had to respond to changing regulations: ?Historic collection points may no longer be safe. We may need to negotiate with householders to select a safe spot.? It would be the householder?s responsibility to take the refuse or recycling to the point. There is a 4x4 collection service for awkward access areas, but this is used to full capacity on difficult public highways and there is no spare capacity for use on private lanes.
