Queen's Park Rise: junction closure leads to missed rubbish collections

Bollards have been installed at the junction between Queen’s Park Terrace and Queen's Park Rise as part of the School Streets scheme outside St Luke's Primary School.

Residents say the closure has caused disruption to their usual rubbish and recycling collection times, as the trucks have struggled to reverse out of Queen's Park Rise.

Alan Meredith, who lives in Queen's Park Mews, said: "We realised we were not getting our collections and wondered if it was to do with the bollards.

Bollards in Queen's Park Rise

"Someone in the street contacted CityClean and we learned the drivers are not prepared to reverse up the street after collection.

"We were having to find other boxes for our glass bottle recycling as they were all full."

Residents said recycling and rubbish was collected on Monday after weeks of "sporadic" collections, when they did not know if their refuse would be taken.

Mr Meredith said the problem has only angered people further about the introduction of the bollards.

He said: "Our main complaint is that we were not consulted about this - it's been called a trial but it's very obvious it's a done deal.

"It's also obvious no-one at the council has thought about it, as they are only now trying to work out how to collect refuse. It's just silly.

"They could have widened the pavements instead like they've done in other areas.

"Close the road during school drop-off and pick-up times if you must, but the time and money spent on this so-called trial scheme is farcical."

Residents in the street put signs up against the road closure

Queen's Park Rise resident Dr Liz Robinson said she was surprised to see the rubbish collection take place during school pick-up hours on Monday.

She said: "It's actually dangerous - they came just as school pupils were leaving, and the truck came down the road through all these children.

"We get these letters telling us how wonderful it all is but there's been a total lack of consultation."

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said: “We’d like to apologise to residents on and around Queen’s Park Rise for missing some of their refuse and recycling collections in recent weeks.

“We have now cleared this backlog.

“There were some misunderstandings by our Cityclean team regarding access to the area following the recent introduction of the new traffic bollards.

“But Cityclean and our transport team are working together to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

“We’re running the School Streets closure at St Luke’s Primary on a trial basis.

“Feedback from residents, the school community and other stakeholders will be taken into account by councillors before they make a decision on whether the measures should be made permanent, adjusted or reversed.”