PUB LANDLORD'S ANGER AFTER BEING SENT HUGE BILL BY WASTE COLLECTOR

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3 June 2008

‘Bill hike’ comes weeks after non-collections

By John Prendergast

A PECKHAM pub landlord is refusing to pay his refuse bill after the council failed to collect his rubbish, but he then received a demand which hiked up his costs by almost 500 per cent.

The 'News' reported in April that Johnny Henfrey, who runs the Gowlett Arms in Peckham and the Old Nun’s Head in neighbouring Nunhead, was fuming that his rubbish had not been collected for two weeks.

He said the service had become particularly slipshod since the council awarded the collection contract to private firm Veolia in April, a contract estimated to be worth £665 million.

The piles of rubbish were causing Mr Henfrey (pictured right) enormous concern as his pubs are renowned for their food, and he was inspected he faced the prospect of having to close his kitchen.

The landlord has now received an invoice for the services since April and has received another shock. He said: "For picking up my recycling Veolia want to charge me £5 a day, which means they charged me £320 for April and May, while I was charged £470 (£1.29 a day) for the whole of last year by the council."

Despite querying the bill, the figures have been confirmed as correct, which has left Mr Henfrey in a defiant mood. He added: "I suppose it's quite amusing but they are not going to get any money, and I will be taking my business to someone else. They have also charged me for eight collections from both of my pubs, when they only collected twice from one and three times from the other - it's just unbelievable."

A Veolia Environmental Services' spokesperson said: "A Veolia ES commercial services customer has queried his latest invoice claiming that he was overcharged for the services provided since April 2008. 

“Due to the transfer of trade waste contracts over to Veolia from the previous supplier, Southwark Council, in early April, 4000 services were manually set-up by our administration staff leading to some data entry errors. Any errors raised by customers since April have been addressed quickly and efficiently by Veolia's Trade Waste staff.  Southwark Council continues to provide support in resolving any issues that may have resulted from the transfer of the trade waste contracts.

“We have looked into this customer's invoice and found some clerical errors that will be rectified immediately. When a query or complaint is raised by any customers it is promptly logged, investigated and confirmed back to the customer. As a company we are open to customer enquiries and take the time to look at each case carefully.  However, we ask that customers notify us of any issues either by telephone or in writing at the contact numbers provided on their statements."

Veolia have proved to be a controversial appointment as services have not run smoothly since they took over the contract. A party costing £240 per head, paid for by Southwark Council to celebrate the firm winning the contract, caused consternation in the borough, especially to Mr Henfrey, who was 'gob smacked' when he was informed.

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