Carmarthenshire council apologised for “significant disruptions” to its waste and recycling collections during and after the Christmas and New Year holiday.
The council said its delivery of collections this Christmas period had “fallen short” of the service levels residents expect and what the Authority wishes to deliver.
The Authority said it is working hard, directly with its crews, to rectify the situation as soon as possible.
The council added that whilst bank holiday waste collection services have had multiple challenges for a number of years, the County Council has undertaken trials of various solutions to improve collection performance. However, the main challenge remains in staff availability.
The council said its operational workforce has no contractual obligation to work either on a bank holiday, or the weekend following, and it has struggled to obtain sufficient levels of resource across the county to deliver certainty of service.
The council’s Cabinet Member for Transport, Waste and Infrastructure Services – Cllr Edward Thomas said: “I wholeheartedly sympathise with our residents that have been affected by the disruption to the bin collections over the past few weeks and understand their frustrations.
“Please be assured that we are working diligently to catch up on all missed collections and our officers are looking at all possible solutions to prevent this level of disruption from happening again. We have committed to engaging with staff and trade unions to understand how we can provide certainty of service for future bank holidays and we will develop a detailed plan that balances operational challenges, staff views and the needs of the community alongside the financial implications.
“This Christmas, we have in most parts successfully completed the collections of our residual waste (black bag) and AHP (nappy waste) collections. However, the recycling (blue bag and food waste) collections have been challenging. This is partly due to the substantial recycling volumes during the festive period, which were expected. However, the issue was compounded by staff absence levels, increased vehicle breakdowns, and delays at our transfer stations all leading to widescale service failure across the county.
“Once again, I would like to reiterate my apologies to affected residents and thank them for their understanding and patience during this challenging period for our recycling and waste service.”
The council is asking residents to log any missed collections on their website to address the issue more efficiently and ensure waste is collected as soon as possible.
(Lead image: Carmarthenshire Council)
