The festive spirit was alive and kicking in Cardiff Council this Christmas as staff worked together to ensure a man was reunited with the Christmas presents he’d accidentally left at a council household recycling and waste centre (HRWC) on Christmas Eve.
Mike James had taken what he thought was a sack of waste to the Waungron Road HRWC site. To his horror he realised that he had in fact dumped his family’s Christmas presents and raced back to the site to retrieve them but by this time the site had closed. In desperation, Mike contacted the police who warned against climbing over the fence and said he should speak to the Council.
He called our Community Alarm Service (CAS) to see if anything could be done aware it was nearly 6pm on Christmas Eve. Joseph Spiteri took the call and immediately looked for solutions to this festive shocker. Joseph spoke to Highways staff to see if one of their units could access the site but was told the City Services waste team would be better placed to help.
He contacted our waste HQ at Lamby Way and spoke to Christine Harry who was only too happy to help. She contacted a security guard and asked if he would be willing to let Mr James into the site to find his sack of presents. The guard agreed so Christine called Mr James to tell him to make his way to Waungron Road.
“I felt physically sick when I realised what I’d done,” said Mr James, “I had 10 presents in the sack including some for my children, jewellery for my sister and presents for me from my wife. I felt physically sick when I realised but everybody at the council was fantastic, all very understanding, they really pulled all the stops out for me. I felt elated when I found them, I was surrounded by rubbish but at least Christmas wasn’t ruined. My family cheered and clapped when I got home. It was a great relief and the council did us proud.”
Joseph Spiteri was delighted he was able to help Mr James. He said, “This was a really appalling situation to find yourself in on Christmas Eve and I was determined to help in any way possible. I was so pleased I was able to help and that my colleagues were also so eager to help Mr James. Can you imagine having to explain you threw all your family’s presents away? It doesn’t bear thinking about.”
Christine Harry also felt a festive glow playing a part in rescuing the presents, “Mr James was desperate and I knew we had to help despite the fact the site was shut and I’m so glad no one gave up on him. It was great Joseph worked with us to rescue the presents and I’m also grateful to our security people for being so cooperative. It’s brilliant this awful predicament had such a happy ending,” she said.
Executive Member for Environment, Cllr Margaret Jones, said, “I can’t begin to imagine the desperation poor Mr James must have felt on Christmas Eve so I’m absolutely delighted our staff from CAS and City Services worked so well together to ensure his family received their presents on Christmas Day.”
