Several areas in Kent have been plagued by bin “chaos”, with rubbish being left uncollected, staff being spat on, and residents turning to private companies in order to properly have their waste disposed of.
People living in Swale, Maidstone and Ashford have had to deal with a plague of problems relating to their waste collection, after Suez Recycling and Recovery UK took over the £152million contract from Biffa.
The new contract - which began on March 25 and will run for eight years - was promised by local councils to “improve reliability, reduce the environmental impact and provide a more efficient service” for the 460,000 people living under the three authorities.
However, residents appalled by missed collections, have turned to private companies for waste services, as the bin collection “chaos” enters its sixth week with no solution in sight.
Vincent Masseri, general manager at Suez, said the service is “steadily improving each week” and thanked residents “for bearing with us while these improvements continue to bed in”, promising previously to catch up with the backlog by the end of April.
Yet many residents have been left to feel “forgotten” by the lack of action. Barbara Simmons, from Charing, told the BBC: “We often go weeks without a collection. It is simply not good enough.”
John Finnis, who lives in Faversham, told the publication that it has been "an absolute disaster and totally chaotic”.
Bins in Minister and Leysdown on Sheppey only had their recycling collected when councillors used their own personal money to get them cleared - costing £5 a bin.
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As the situation progresses, an emergency council meeting has been called about what to do, with the public allowed to attend.
Cllr Mark Tucker (Con, Sheppey Central), said that he has seen “rubbish everywhere” when he has gone to help over see collections.
He told KentOnline: “As long as I can pay the mortgage next month, I will keep going. It's frustrating for us and it's frustrating for residents, who are understanding but don’t receive any communication as to why their bins are not being collected.
“We get updates from the council saying what bins have been done but when we go to those places we find out that only their green [general waste] bin has been collected and their blue bins haven't.
“I do not know what has gone wrong and what the consequences are for Suez and the council but that’s what we hope to find out at the meeting.”
Swale Council have apologised for the “inconvenience”, admitting that “elements” of the contract “have not gone to plan”.
A council spokesman said: “We knew there were going to be teething problems, as there always are when undertaking a large change, but the service being provided was not to the standard we, nor our community, expected.
“Although the majority of residents have received the correct scheduled service, we are continuing to work with Suez to resolve any outstanding issues.”
The local authority said that amid the chaos, some members of the public have abused staff members, with some even being “spat on”.
The spokesman added: “We are sad to say we are receiving reports of binmen being sworn and spat at, and call centre staff being spoken to in an unacceptably aggressive manner and verbally abused.”
Suez is currently in a three-month grace period so will not face any possible repercussions until June 25. This time allowance is understood to be industry standard.
