TOWN Hall bosses have apologised after bins in a number of areas across the borough went unemptied.

Senior officers admitted there had been a number of problems with the collection of wheelie bins - and they had missed the collection of green recycling boxes.

The Bolton Evening News has been inundated with letters about full wheelie bins which have been left standing during the hot weather.

The problems are being blamed on major changes to rounds, caused by more homes receiving recycling containers and the switch to alternate weekly collections in the west of the borough which starts on Monday. Areas affected include Farnworth, Horwich, Westhoughton and Smithills.

Recycling bosses have apologised for the confusion, and have promised to improve the service - claiming the demand for special boxes and bins was more than they had anticipated.

Cllr Roger Hayes, executive member for direct services at Bolton Council, said: "I would like to say sorry on behalf of the Commercial Services department.

"I have received a number of complaints and I am trying to get to the bottom of it.

"The main problem is that there have been major changes to rounds in areas such as Westhoughton, Horwich and Smithills, which are where the main problems are happening.

"We also have a number of new and temporary staff.

"Despite our best efforts, it seems that mistakes have been repeated.

"This should not be happening and we will do what we can to ensure the situation is improved quickly."

A spokesman for the council's Commercial Services department said they hoped to eradicate the problems by the end of Friday.

She said: "We are experiencing some problems across the borough with regard to missed collections. This is not around the green bins and boxes, and there is no issue with paper.

"There is part of Farnworth, either side of the centre, where no green boxes or green bins were collected yesterday - this was unfortunately due to staff sickness.

"We can't slot people quickly into these roles from other areas of the business because they are not trained within this area.

"We collect from a large number of properties, and we endeavour to provide a collection service on the correct day or week.

"However, on some occasions some properties had their collections missed.

"This can be due to a number of factors, such as containers being presented at the wrong time, not being placed at the correct location and being contaminated in the case of recycling containers.

"We are doing everything we can do to make sure people are correctly informed about the service."