Damage claims over recycling site
Friday 3rd April 2009, 11:16AM BST.
A row has broken out between council bosses in Powys and a social enterprise amid claims of criminal damage.
Grovenor Samaritans, from Wolverhampton, claims several of its recycling banks have been defaced.
It claims a member of staff from Powys County Council is responsible.
But the county council says the textile banks have been put up illegally in seven of its recycling sites in Knighton, Llandrindod Wells, Rhayader, Llanidloes, Newtown, Welshpool and Churchstoke.
Harinber Rhoad, of Grovenor Samaritans, said he had no idea the bins had been put up illegally.
He said: “Most of the bins have been put up with permission of the owner but some haven’t. Because there was no disclaimer notice restricting us, we just followed custom practice and put the banks there.”
He claimed that on collection day staff discovered that several of the recycling banks had been damaged.
He said: “Yellow painting with the words ‘Do Not Use, Illegally Placed’ has been written on some of the banks and stickers belonging to the charity that the banks represent have been ripped off.
“We actually saw one of the officers from Powys County Council carrying out the damage. We reported it to the police straight away.”
A spokesman for Powys County Council said: “They did not seek permission and we have not given permission for them to do this.
“We have written to the company requesting they remove their banks immediately and enforcement action will be taken if this is not done.”
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
recycling is a fools game invented by the eu and the climate change myth makers to con you out of yet more taxes
Report abuse
i thought councils were meant to be encouraging recycling, this just shows they want to keep all the money and sqeeze out honest hard working companies who would compete with them
Report abuse
not good the council should encourage more recyclingbanks
Report abuse
shocking bully boy tactics by the council to have exclusivity on the rag trade, they should allow other companies a chance to proevide the service cheaper for the rate payer
Report abuse
who cares reycling is a lefty con to tax us
Report abuse
we have one at asda in shrewsbury it seems fine to me
Report abuse
arent the samaritans a charity? it seems to me to be a very uncharitable act
Report abuse
I think its great that more and more private companies are moving into recycling to reduce the burden on the taxpayer, in tesco in sundorne they even give you club card points for the cans, its great that this company collects textiles (though i prefer to donate to charity shops) but this is a really useful additional recycling service (better than the sabc one where they often fail to collect the textiles)- like pete says the more clothes banks around town the better you would think? waht we need is more like the old rag and bone man where they pay you for the stuff rather than us paying them to collect it
Report abuse
Don Hall, these aren’t put there by or on behalf of The Samaritans, but by another organisation called Grovenor Samaritans.
I can’t find much about them on the web other than that they appear to be a limited company, and are something to do with recycling footwear in particular, possibly for charitable purposes.
Looking at the charity commission website ‘Grovenor Samaritans’ doesn’t seem to be listed as a registered charity.
If they are a commercial company it seems unlikely they should be allowed to just place their receptacles in public places. Sounds to me like the council may well have got it right.
Report abuse
don hall said:
“arent the samaritans a charity? it seems to me to be a very uncharitable act”
They’re not “The Samaritans”, but a “charitable fund raiser”. A Google search reveals nothing but a couple of stories about local authorities saying that they placed their bins on their recycling sites without authorisation.
Grovenor Samaritans’ own web site doesn’t work, nor that of “Unifer”, who claim to be their main corportae sponsor.
Report abuse
The whole thing is just juvenile.
Report abuse
sounds like the company is trying to be a charity
are they registered with the charity commission that should answer that one?
Report abuse
assume they are not a charity and hence the complaint from the council, though i think they over reacted a bit
Report abuse