October update: raised recycling issues, burglaries, highways update

Some ongoing issues with the rollout of the new recycling scheme

The changes to bin collections have been in place since August. The good news is that residual waste is reported to be falling by around 50 to 60 percent. There is more capacity to recycle paper and card with the new separate bin, and soft plastics are now being recycled following the successful pilot that included Knebworth. 

Whilst this is helping to drive up the recycling levels, we are aware that there continue to be issues with the rollout of the new service. We’ve been helping individual residents with cases of repeated missed collections and will continue to do so.

In October we raised this issue at the overall District Council meeting, highlighting a number of problems also including the breakdown in the communal bins services to flats and businesses, plus missed assisted collections and difficulties contacting customer services. We’re working hard to ensure the administration delivers a good service for everyone here.

If you have an ongoing problem and have reported it to the council but it’s not resolved then please get in touch with us and we’ll try and help raise it for you. 

Please be vigilant and help keep burglars out

Knebworth saw an increase in residential burglaries in some places over last winter, although the wider trends are generally downwards according to the police teams from the last community update to councillors.

Unfortunately, with the nights drawing in again, we have started to see some more attempted burglaries taking place around the village, as well as other theft. 

There is some useful homeowner advice on the Hertfordshire Constabulary website here:www.herts.police.uk/protectyourproperty

There is also a new online tool for getting updates – look on the internet for Herts Connected at www.hertsconnected.co.uk and register. Please contact Paul if you want to know more about this or help establish Neighbourhood Watch groups in your specific streets.

Transport and highways updates

The County Council has recently launched couple of pilot initiatives in Hertfordshire that may start to improve services and our roads. One is to repair many potholes together in an area in a single visit using cutting-edge machinery, which can fix faults more quickly and efficiently. Another is a pilot of a franchising system for new buses, giving councils the power to decide routes, timetables and fares.

A number of people raise issues with us regarding overgrown or damaged trees and hedges interfering with pavements and roads. If you wish to report an issue on a topic related to the highways, please use the County Council’s online fault reporting tool.

www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/services/highways-roads-and-pavements/report-a-problem/report-a-highway-fault

Councillors’ surgery

The sessions in the Parish Centre on the third Saturday of each month – next one is 15^th November 10am-12pm. Please come and talk to us about any issues you have with council services. You can contact either Lisa or Paul at team.knebworth@gmail.com or at our district councillor contacts below.