Just days after long queues formed outside one facility, two recycling centres in Angus closed early yesterday as they could not keep up with demand.
Carnoustie and Monifieth’s centres were both closed at least an hour before their advertised time as they were at capacity.
A Carnoustie man arrived at his local centre with a “car full” of waste at around 3pm, only to find staff locking up and leaving. He saw a handwritten sign on a whiteboard saying it had closed early due to the site being full. It also stated that Monifieth was still open.
The man, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “It was a bit of an annoyance, but I headed out to Monifieth and there were a couple of workers there.”
However, he was turned away by those members of staff as that site also had to close early because it was full.
He added: “Staff at the Monifieth centre said they got a call from counterparts in Carnoustie at midday saying they were full and closing early. People were sent to Monifieth as a result.
“I still have a car full of rubbish I have to get rid of and won’t until at least tomorrow now. Some of it is household rubbish. I’ve had to take that inside and throw it in the bin as it can get a bit smelly, so I couldn’t leave it in the car.
“The annoying thing is that they encourage everybody to recycle, but they are not providing people with the facilities to do that.
“And we are being charged to have garden refuse emptied but they are not offering the facilities to do that.
“Why don’t they increase everybody’s council tax by something like 50p to make sure they can keep affording to provide the service?
“I am not impressed with what is being provided by Angus Council.”
Carnoustie and Monifieth’s centres are both supposed to close at 4pm on a Sunday, according to Angus Council’s website.
In the week leading up to new year, cars were queued at Carnoustie Recycling Centre as residents tried to get rid of their recycling over the festive period.
The town’s skip site was shut for an extra day over Christmas, despite other facilities in the region being open, leading to allegations local residents were being treated unfairly.
Carnoustie councillor Brian Boyd labelled it “chaos” and encouraged Angus Council to adopt a common sense approach so that the town can be treated like “every other burgh in Angus and be open for recycling”.
And the councillor says now that the early closure is an inevitable symptom of the council’s management.
He said: “I am not surprised this has happened when you reduce staffing levels. This is going to be the problem.
“I would say the staff are disgruntled. I genuinely emphasis with them, they are being paid less than the living wage and have to deal with this.
“This Christmas is no different from ones in the past. You can tell when recycling levels will increase so the council should be able to act accordingly.
“I asked the council for common sense but it would seem that has fallen on deaf ears.
“Council leader Bob Myles said there is no reason that Carnostie would be affected, well let me assure you that it is.”
The council was yesterday contacted for comment, but nobody was available.
