Wheelie bins: Apology issued for "teething problems"

In June, a roll out of more than 58,000 wheelie bins to households across the district was launched after more than a year of planning.

Homeowners who received one of the bins were moved to a fortnightly collection.

But a matter of weeks after the initiative had started, the council was swamped with complaints from thousands of angry residents.

Blasting the project, people reported finding binmen leaving some of their of waste untouched and their streets were starting to smell.

Neil Stock, Tendring Council leader, has praised the scheme for triggering a surge in food waste recycling, after an increase of 96 per cent was reported in the system’s first full week.

But he has also apologised for the catalogue of shortcomings.

Mr Stock said: “We recognise there have been some teething problems during the roll-out, and on behalf of Tendring Council I apologise for that.

“With an operation of this size and scale, some element of disruption is inevitable.

“We are already seeing problems and complaints reducing.

“We are also seeing the evidence that the amount of waste and recycling have been changing significantly as the new system has been implemented.

“I continue to believe this will all be worthwhile, for improving our recycling rate as a district.”

Delyth Miles, councillor for Walton, questioned the positive view of the service and said the system has been littered with problems.

Some of her ward’s residents are still waiting to be issued a bin, meaning they have to put out their black bags like before. But because binmen are instructed to only take the contents of a wheelie bin, their rubbish is failing to be collected. She said: “It has been chaos and an appalling reflection on the district.

She said: “It has been a huge disappointment and is causing people considerable stress.

“There hasn’t been a single day since the roll-out where I haven’t received complaints.”