Bad weather has contributed to a rubbish rating for Angus Council’s bin collection service.
The harsh winter, vehicle breakdowns and the challenges of introducing a new recycling service have all been blamed as reasons behind a 35% hike in the number of missed collections.
Waste management officials are now pledging to get the service back on track after a year which also saw the number of missed green box collections jump by 14% also largely due to adverse weather.
The waste collection complaint figures drew the attention of Montrose councillor Bill Duff as part of the presentation of the council’s neighbourhood services report for 2012/13 to committee members this week.
Mr Duff said: “That’s quite a significant increase and I would like to know what the reasons behind it are, and what is being done to tackle it.”
Strategic director of communities Alan McKeown said the adverse conditions had “significantly elevated” missed bin collections.
His report added: “The introduction of the trial recycling service in September 2012 has resulted in an increased level of complaints; this is to be expected the more services we have, the more complaints we receive.”
Among the highlights contained within the report were the council’s successful negotiation with the Scottish Government to obtain £1.842 million grant to help build more social and affordable housing across Angus by March 2015; the first 12 months of a two-year pilot introduced to prevent homelessness among young people, resulting in 390 young people from not becoming homeless; and the success of a continuing partnership with Angus College to promote and support apprenticeships and training opportunities in the construction sector throughout the district.