Cuts to weekly bin collections causes Christmas misery, Wolverhampton opposition councillors claim

Conservative councillors in Wolverhampton said they have received a raft of complaints from 'angry' residents, who are unhappy with a lack of bin collections during the Christmas period.

Residents have been left frustrated after being forced to take their rubbish to nearby skips as bins have 'not been collected for weeks', they claim.

But Wolverhampton Council has said just 0.5 per cent of residents reported a missing bin collection after scheduled pick-ups falling on bank holidays were re-arranged.

Councillor Steve Evans, cabinet member for city environment, said: "Over December 27 and 28, bin crews emptied around 40,000 bins across the city. Of this number, we’ve been contacted by 0.5 percent of residents reporting a missing bin collection.

"This is a small number of households across Wolverhampton, however, we take reports like this seriously and apologise for any inconvenience.

"If your bin was not been collected on these two days, we apologise the inconvenience and ask people to contact customer services to arrange a collection."

Leaflets were distributed to homes across the city whose fortnightly collections fell on either Christmas Day or Boxing Day, with re-scheduled pick-ups planned for December 27 and 28.

Any bins which were missed and reported to the council were emptied within 48 hours or less after officers were notified.

There were also no collections on Christmas Day and Boxing Day in 2017 when weekly collections were in force, the Labour-led council said.

But opposition councillors said bins were left overflowing into the streets as residents were left 'confused' over the changes to the fortnightly collections.

Councillor Chris Haynes, deputy leader of the Conservative group, said: “The situation with household waste collections in Wolverhampton is unacceptable, and this could have been avoided if Labour councillors hadn’t decided to cut weekly bin collections.

“At a time when families are gathering to spend time with each other, the last thing they want to worry about is when their bin is going to be collected. This is yet another sting in the tail from the Labour Party.

“People shouldn’t have to take it upon themselves to do what the local authority should be doing for them – and what they pay extortionate levels of council tax for. Labour councillors have serious questions to answer.”

There were no collections in Oxley's Sandon Road, Harrowby Road and Winchester Road on the usual days due to bank holidays.

Tettenhall residents have also gone without any recycled waste collections for almost a month as there were no recycling collections on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, with households forced to wait until their next scheduled date for pick-ups.

Residents whose bins have not been collected as stated are advised to contact the council's customer service team at customerservices@wolverhampton.gov.uk or 01902 551 155.