3. DirApp - Update on Purple Bin Lids
North Ayrshire Council · 29 May 2025
Back to Audit and Scrutiny Committee — 29 May 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
Page 1
NORTH AYRSHIRE COUNCIL 29 May 2025 Audit & Scrutiny Committee Title: Update on purple bin lid issues Purpose: To update the Audit & Scrutiny Committee on the actions taken to resolve the issues experienced with purple bin lid defects. Recommendation: Audit and Scrutiny Committee notes the progress made. 1. Executive Summary 1.1 As part of the Council’s implementation of a three weekly collection scheme for kerbside domestic waste collections, an additional bin was provided to residents to recycle their cans, glass and plastic containers. This involved the provision of some 61,750 purple bins to every household on the mainland and Cumbrae. A few months into implementation, quality issues were identified by residents with repairs and replacement lids required for their purple bins. This only affected certain batches. 1.2 Arrangements were made with the supplier for replacement, non faulty lids to be received. 1.3 A significant number of service requests have been received from residents which have required the Waste Operations team to respond to by delivering and fitting replacement lids. 2. Background 2.1 In April 2019, North Ayrshire Council implemented a three weekly collection cycle for kerbside domestic waste collections. As part of this a new purple bin was provided to residents for their cans, glass and plastic. A few months into implementation, quality issues were identified by residents with repairs and replacement lids required for the purple bin lid only. This only affected certain batches. 2.2 Meetings were held with the supplier of the bin lids and the contract administrator, Scotland Excel, to try and resolve this issue. The issue related to a tooling design fault which was rectified by the supplier. 2.3 Agreement was reached with the supplier, including the supplier fixing faulty bin lids and the supplier providing free bin lids and bins to the Council as compensation for the disruption caused. A tooling design fault was rectified by the supplier during the manufacturing process to prevent the issue recurring. 2.4 This matter was raised at full Council on 15 May 2024 and at that time 5,400 purple bins lids had been repaired with 1,529 repairs outstanding. Waste Services provided a
Page 2
commitment to resolve the outstanding repairs as soon as possible. 2.5 Following a request from the Audit and Scrutiny Committee on 21 March 2024, during a debate on the mid-year complaints report, an online facility for residents to report purple bin lid faults was developed and launched in June 2024. 2.6 The online reporting facility has proven to be effective, however, has resulted in a significant number of duplicate requests of already reported faults. This necessitated a data cleanse to remove duplicate requests. 2.7 A significant number of new cases were reported following Storm Eowyn in late January 2025. This extraordinary high level of cases increased pressure on the team to repair or replace the bin lids. However, despite this, significant progress has been made in clearing the backlog and dealing with new cases. 2.8 A recent review was carried out at the start of this year into processes and arrangements in place to respond to the ongoing issue with the provision of replacement purple bin lids, which resulted in operational tweaks to improve service response times. These have now been in operation for a number of weeks with significant progress made in responding to outstanding and new service requests. 2.9 An update on the number of purple bin lids repaired and outstanding, at the time of writing the report, is as follows: Number of cases reported: 11,336 Number of repairs carried out: 10,561 Number of outstanding repairs: 775 2.10 Continued good progress is anticipated and will be reported verbally during the meeting. 3. Proposals 3.1 It is proposed the Committee notes the update provided on the number of purple bin lid repairs that have been attended to and that arrangements are in place to address the outstanding and newly received repair requests. 4. Implications/Socio-economic Duty Financial 4.1 None. Human Resources 4.2 None. Legal 4.3 None.
Page 3
Equality/Socio-economic 4.4 None. Climate Change and Carbon 4.5 None. Key Priorities 4.6 None. Community Wealth Building 4.7 None. 5. Consultation 5.1 None. RUSSELL McCUTCHEON Executive Director (Place) For further information please contact Thomas Reaney, Head of Service (Neighbourhood Services), 01294 310000. Background Papers 0