Bolton Council bin collection changes debated at town hall

This comes after major changes were rolled out earlier this year including cutting paper and cardboard “beige bin” collections from every two weeks to every four weeks.

Towards the end of August council leaders claimed the changes had prompted “significant improvement”, which prompted heated rebuttals at a town hall meeting last week.

Cllr Maureen Flitcroft, of Farnworth South, said: “It looked to me like we were praising ourselves on how we’ve done on the new bin process and the collection and the rounds and the beige bins going to the monthly.”

She added: “I just couldn’t understand why, why would we be going to press and pat ourselves on the back when things are still getting in and its obvious to me that there are still problems on the streets.

Beige bins are now only collected every four weeks (Image: Newsquest)

“Our residents are still suffering and they’re coming to us every week with an issue.”

Cllr Flitcroft said that claiming the new system was doing well was “rubbing salt in our residents’ wounds.”

The council had said in a press release published in The Bolton News at the end of August that the changes from July 15 had resulted in a 50 per cent drop in missed collections.

They also said that more than half of those missed where because bin waggons could not gain access rather than because of operational reasons.

But Cllr Flitcroft said that this was not the reality that she had seen in her area and elsewhere in the borough.

She asked for a reassessment of the service in around three months which she said she hoped would give a truer assessment of missed bin collections.

In response, council cabinet member for the environment Cllr Richard Silvester said that “in the interests of transparency” press releases on the state of the service would continue.

ALSO READ: 'Fewer missed bins' as shake-up of bin collections 'leads to improvements'

ALSO READ: Bin collection changes across Bolton announced

ALSO READ: Details 'through the door' for homes all over Bolton on changing bin pickups

He said that it was important to continue providing the public with updates.

Cllr Silvester said: “I can understand that some councillors may feel it is still early days when assessing the success of the waste collection changes.”

He claimed that his administration had inherited a “complete mess of a situation” but had been making improvements.

Cllr Silvester said: “With all of the changes taking places the service had gone forwards and it continues to go forwards instead of backwards as it was under the previous administration.”