12 March 2026 · Miriam Hale
How to read a missed-collection log without arguing about the round
Most waste extracts arrive with a short list of reason codes. Officers already know that “not out” and “access” are different on the street. The trouble starts when both are added into a single “missed” column for a slide. Members then ask why a round that finished on time still generated twenty tickets, and the depot manager has to unpick the slide in public.
When we read a twelve-month log we keep the codes apart until the last page. “Not out” is a household act, or at least a household circumstance. “Access” is usually a parked car, a locked car park, or a crew decision at a pinch point. Mixing them makes a ward look careless when the obstruction sits on a bank-holiday pavement.
The second trap is the recode. A resident rings again the next morning; the second ticket is logged as “waste enquiry” because the original missed-collection code has closed. The household drops out of the repeat list. We ask for both codes, then print a small table of households that appear in either. It is slower than a single filter. It is also the table that survives a chair’s follow-up.
If you are preparing figures this month, print the round number beside the ward. Rounds cross ward lines. A cluster that looks like a political boundary is often a crew changeover at a dual carriageway. Caption that. The map can still be dark. The minute does not have to blame the wrong depot.