A REVOLUTION in Plymouth’s rubbish collections will begin early next month.

Every household in the city will be affected as the bin men switch to a four-day week.

New team-working means whole areas of the city will be blitzed on the same day.

The bins revolution that begins on November 3 is the end result of months of careful planning.

Faced with a patchwork of rounds stitched together over the years as new homes were built, the council has been forced into a root and branch review.

At present refuse lorries often trek right across the city from one area to another, and Plymouth's hills and narrow back lanes have forced bin men into complicated arrangements.

But, from November 3, teams of refuse collectors in a fleet of new hi-tech lorries will blitz large areas of the city in one hit.

Street cleaners working more closely behind will be on the scene sooner to clear away litter left behind.

Routine bin collections will only happen on four days a week, meaning that lorries can be serviced on the fifth day without the council having to hire in replacements.

In weeks with a Bank Holiday Monday, collections will automatically move back by one day.

Staff will work a four-day week, but keep the same number of hours. The four-day collection means the council will not have to employ so many casual staff.

The city has been divided into three zones – west, central and east – replacing a patchwork of rounds that previously existed.

A £3.27 million investment into a new fleet of refuse lorries, tailor-made for the city with its high number of back lanes and hills, paved the way for the reorganisation.

The city has bought 20 large lorries with rear steering. It has four smaller satellite lorries that will clear narrow lanes and then deliver their loads to the larger vehicles.

This will reduce the number of trips to the waste transfer station at Chelson Meadow and cut congestion on the city's roads.

The lorries will be fitted with radios and satellite navigation systems so problems can be reported back instantly.

Crews will get information immediately if they have missed a collection and be able to go back and pick it up. Under the old system, crews would not know about problems until they were back at the depot.

Teams will be collectively responsible for clearing the whole of a zone, and their supervisors will get out on the streets more often, Mr Leaves said.

Jayne Donovan, assistant director of environmental services at the council, said: "Until a whole area is cleared, no-one will be allowed to go home. That's a sea change that has taken time to negotiate with unions."

At the start of the changeover, some households will have to wait an extra 10 days for their first recycling collection, but will be given extra bags to cope with the one-off inconvenience.

The council is launching a campaign called Which Day Bin Day to make sure everyone gets the message through the media and advertising.

Thousands of letters will be sent out in the next few weeks and will include a fridge magnet so people can keep the information somewhere handy in their kitchen.

Ms Donovan said extra staff were being brought in at the council's contact centre to cope with an expected flood of inquiries.

"Even if 99 per cent of people are happy, we'll still get more than 1,000 calls a week," she said.

She added the new technology would mean if a resident called in to find out why their bin had not been collected, the call centre would already know the answer.

Doug Smith, waste and street scene manager, said sometimes lanes were not cleared because of parked cars.

With the new communications systems, the teams would be able to report back immediately and the call centre would be able to tell householders.

He said crews would be less likely to cut corners because the supervisors would spend more time in their zones.

Ms Donovan said: "We hope this will encourage more recycling. If people think they have a good service they will be more likely to co-operate and recycle."

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July 16, 2008: 100 angry council workers took to the streets of Plymouth City Centre as part of the two-day strike in protest against their pay rises.