Not again... new bins sent back after paint blunder

ANOTHER batch of new litter bins for Henley has had to be sent back twice because of a problem with the finish.

The town council spent £14,000 on 12 double- and five triple-size bins in green and gold as part of a wider programme to replace the town’s ageing bins.

The bins arrived at the parks depot in the week commencing October 7 but when they were unwrapped the following week it was found the paint had reacted badly to rainwater.

They were collected by supplier Wybone but when they were returned to the council last week there was the same problem with the paint.

A handful of bins also had the council’s “H” emblem attached upside down so they all had to be returned again on Monday last week.

This follows a similar incident involving a different contractor where 10 single green and gold heritage cast iron bins had to be returned twice after similar paintwork issues.

Town clerk Sheridan Jacklin-Edward told an informal meeting of the Henley in Bloom sub-committee that there had been more issues with bins. He said: “All the single ones have now been replaced but the triple bins arrived and the paint basically started bubbling up as soon as it started raining.”

He said that the council has now had the bins redelivered and are now ready to be used.

Speaking to the Henley Standard, Richard Cooper, the managing director of Wybone, apologised and said that the company was working hard to fix it, joking that the quality control checker “must have been doing headstands.”

He said that the firm had used the same paint supplier for 20 years and that it had confirmed to him that there was a problem with the paint.

Mr Cooper said: “I think the company’s admitted that they’ve changed the formulation and taken something out of it, but we weren’t aware of it. It’s highly unusual to have this issue because obviously, we supply hundreds and hundreds of these products all the time.

“Normally a paint is there to stop the ingress of water and protect the substrate. It seems that the paint we were supplied absorbs water. I’m not familiar with the constraints paint manufacturers are under but I understand that there are new sorts of chemicals that you can’t put in paint now. It may be something to do with a volatile organic solvent.”

Mr Cooper explained that after being notified about the problem the first time Wybone immediately changed its supplier. However, after painting over the old paint, it reacted badly and caused the same problem.

He said: “There’s obviously something wrong with the paint because the new paint reacted and caused the issues, which is a bit embarrassing for us because obviously there’s quite a lot of labour involved in doing what we’ve done, including collecting and re-delivering.”

Mr Cooper declined to name the paint supplier saying that the responsibility for the error ultimately lay with Wybone. He added that despite the setback he was determined to see a positive outcome for Henley.

He said: “It’s my job as managing director to resolve this with Henley without pointing the finger of blame at anybody else. We take responsibility to sort Henley out and the aftermath of the issues we will deal with in the background.” Mr Cooper said that the company wanted to donate to a local charity or a school to make up for the inconvenience.

Town centre manager Paul Carey said that despite the incident the council had had a positive experience with Wybone and that Mr Cooper had called him personally to apologise.

Meanwhile, the council is in the process of getting quotes for the refurbishment of the town’s 12 bus shelters, which would include the replacement of central and side panels and repainting.

It is proposed to use “Henley Green” for the shelter and seats and that the mid-rail be painted in gold to aid visually-impaired passengers. The green colour is intended to match Henley’s other street furniture.

Meanwhile, the Henley in Bloom committee also heard that the new owner of a property in Hart Street said they were looking to remove the dilapidated “living wall” that was attached to the side of it because it was causing structural damage to the building.

Assistant parks manager Kyle Dowling said that despite previous suggestions to relocate the wall to Mill Meadows there was not a wall big enough to accommodate it.